Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An alloy of gold or silver with a greater proportion of another metal, such as copper, used in making coins.
  • noun An alloy of silver with a high percentage of copper, used in making medals and tokens.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Gold or silver alloyed with copper in large proportions, so as to make a base metal.
  • noun Coin struck from an alloy over half copper.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An alloy of gold and silver with a large proportion of copper or other base metal, used in coinage.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several alloys of precious metals and base metals that is used (where legal) to make coins, medals etc.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, ingot, from bille, log; see billet.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word billon.

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 Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • 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 Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • 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 Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • In the second quarter Ford retired $7 billon in debt, using profit generated by its North American operations and credit arm.

    Ford's Drive to Ditch 'Junk' Matthew Dolan 2010

  • 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.

    Volunteers stand resolute on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 2011

  • The lender's banking unit did get a boost from Student Loan Corp. and saw total loans up 5% to $52.5 billon.

    Discover to Buy Citi Student Loan Portfolio David Benoit 2011

  • 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.

    Ellen Brown: The Military as a Jobs Program: There Are More Efficient Ways to Stimulate an Economy Ellen Brown 2011

  • "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.

    Asian Shares Fall on Mideast Pressure, New Zealand Quake Colin Ng 2011

  • 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.

    NTPC Provisional Profit Rises 24% Saurabh Chaturvedi 2011

  • 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.

    China's Forex Reserves Decline Lingling Wei 2012

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A low-grade alloy of silver and other metals (usually copper), used in minor coinage.

    April 21, 2008