entry
octogintillion
/ˌɑːktoʊˈdʒɪntɪljən/A number equal to ten raised to the 243rd power
From Latin octōgintā (eighty).
from Latin octōgintā (“eighty”) + -illion.
from Latin octōgintā (“eighty”) + -illion.
Word Ancestry
from Latin octōgintā (“eighty”) + -illion.
from Latin octōgintā (“eighty”) + -illion.
Latin octōgintā was a compact Roman way of saying “eighty,” and it still sits visibly inside this intimidating modern number. The second half, -illion, belongs to the grand naming machinery that grew out of million and its successors, allowing English to stack numerical labels instead of printing an avalanche of digits. Put the pieces together and octogintillion means the eighty-something member of that sequence: in the short scale used in contemporary American English, 1 followed by 243 zeros. The word is less likely to appear in a laboratory than in a discussion of naming systems, because scientific notation makes such monsters look almost tame. Still, the contrast is memorable: Latin gives us the orderly count, while English adds a suffix that turns counting into a linguistic skyscraper.
The Story
Latin octōgintā was a compact Roman way of saying “eighty,” and it still sits visibly inside this intimidating modern number. The second half, -illion, belongs to the grand naming machinery that grew out of million and its successors, allowing English to stack numerical labels instead of printing an avalanche of digits. Put the pieces together and octogintillion means the eighty-something member of that sequence: in the short scale used in contemporary American English, 1 followed by 243 zeros. The word is less likely to appear in a laboratory than in a discussion of naming systems, because scientific notation makes such monsters look almost tame. Still, the contrast is memorable: Latin gives us the orderly count, while English adds a suffix that turns counting into a linguistic skyscraper.
Kin & Kindred
From 'octōgintā'·eighty
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From '-illion'·suffix forming names of extremely large numbers
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Wikipedia
Wiktionary