Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An indefinitely large number.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun slang, hyperbolic An unspecified large number (of).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective very large indeterminate number
- noun a very large indefinite number (usually hyperbole)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Tribal leaders have a "zillion" concerns, Johnson Pata said, and they are hoping to pare them down in meetings this week.
Native American leaders express mixed views on Obama administration's progress on promises Krissah Thompson 2010
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Tribal leaders have a "zillion" concerns, Johnson Pata said, and they are hoping to pare them down in meetings this week.
Native American leaders express mixed views on Obama administration's progress on promises Krissah Thompson 2010
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Nevertheless, your one or two examples is not the "zillion" you were hoping for...
Here comes your "national nervous breakdown." Ann Althouse 2007
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He says he has a "zillion" ideas on a wide-range of baseball topics.
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I’ve thought of that title a zillion times, but I hadn’t had the audacity till July 10th when George Bush himself officially took the words right out of my mouth.
With Glee Bush Proclaims Self "World's Biggest Polluter" 2008
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It’s more like this: If you flip a biased coin a zillion times, the average result will differ from the one you get using an unbiased coin.
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Android gives you access to Google Maps and all the other "zillion" apps that can be downloaded from the Android Market directly to the MOTOROI.
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I don't think a "zillion" is an actual numerical term ...
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Just talk talk talk. jimmy_7591: But he still gives "zillion" dollars to the walthy, just a different set of wealthy.
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I heard he's pushed the TWA divestment price way up, so when he gets the gelt he can funnel it straight into some account he's holding, like some kind of zillion-dollar 'buy up Vegas' fund .... "
American Tabloid Ellroy, James, 1948- 1995
abcedertree commented on the word zillion
First recorded instance of word ‘zillion’?
Song “You’re Too Good To Be True” (1936)
Published:
Copyright 31Oct36
lyrics by Bud Green
music by Jesse Greer
EP57986
R324702
Library of Congress
Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series
Volume 17, Part 5, Number 2
Music
July-December
1963
Recording: (found on youtube)
Brunswick 7779
“You’re Too Good To Be True”
lyrics by Bud Green
music by Jesse Greer
performed by Lud Gluskin & his Orchestra
vocal by Buddy Clark
recorded in NYC November 13, 1936
March 15, 2019
abcedertree commented on the word zillion
Online Etymology Dictionary has citation year 1942.
March 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word zillion
Fun! That's definitely earlier than the OED's first example for it, which is from 1944.
March 15, 2019