Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An alloy of gold or silver with a greater proportion of another metal, such as copper, used in making coins.
- n. An alloy of silver with a high percentage of copper, used in making medals and tokens.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Gold or silver alloyed with copper in large proportions, so as to make a base metal.
- n. Coin struck from an alloy over half copper.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of several alloys of precious metals and base metals that is used (where legal) to make coins, medals etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An alloy of gold and silver with a large proportion of copper or other base metal, used in coinage.
Etymologies
- French, from Old French, ingot, from bille, log; see billet2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“By the end of our first year in office, the economy was beginning to recover and by our second budget, for fiscal 1979, we had cut the federal deficit almost by half, to $40 billon.”
“The lender's banking unit did get a boost from Student Loan Corp. and saw total loans up 5% to $52.5 billon.”
The Wall Street Journal: Discover to Buy Citi Student Loan Portfolio
“Spending on personal consumption, health care, education, mass transit, and construction for home weatherization and infrastructure repair all were found to create more jobs per $1 billon in expenditures than military spending does.”
“India's largest power producer by capacity posted a provisional net profit of 25.05 billion rupees $565 million in the January-March period, compared with 20.17 billon rupees a year earlier.”
“However, Lu Ting , an economist at Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit, believes that about $34 billon might have exited in the third quarter of last year.”
“The passage in December 2010 established the World Trade Center Health Program and ensured $2.7 billon in funding to treat medical ailments of eligible first responders.”
USA Today: Volunteers stand resolute on the 10th anniversary of 9/11
“In the second quarter Ford retired $7 billon in debt, using profit generated by its North American operations and credit arm.”
“The market is likely to be under pressure this week amid tight liquidity conditions as Sinopec is set to sell CNY23 billon worth of bonds on Wednesday, and also as the hike in banks' reserve requirement ratio will take effect Thursday," said Li Xin, an analyst at China Development Bank Securities.”
The Wall Street Journal: Asian Shares Fall on Mideast Pressure, New Zealand Quake
“It also will offer up to €8.9 billon of Treasury bills at its weekly auction Tuesday, but shorter maturities carry less risk and therefore are considered less of a test.”
“The European Banking Authority estimated that the bank needs €3.3 billon $4.4 billion in additional capital to meet its new rule of a 9% core Tier 1 ratio, assuming theoretical write-downs on sovereign-bond holdings.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘billon’.
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Silver
Silvery words. (Mithril doesn't count.)
lessilver, silver, ladysilver, loadsilver, silvery, silversmith, silverwork, silverware, ale-silver, quicksilver, aver-silver, besilver and 242 more...
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phrontistery - b
List of words from phrontistery.info
babeldom, baccate, bacchanal, bacciferous, bacciform, baccivorous, bacillicide, backstay, bactericide, baculiform, baculine, baculum and 582 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Minty Fresh
Terms used in coin collecting.
die, hallmarking, high relief, obverse, reverse, alloy, pantograph, planchet, proof, strike, riddle, bag marks and 93 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for billon.
reesetee A low-grade alloy of silver and other metals (usually copper), used in minor coinage. Apr 21, 2008