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In the United States, a billion is one thousand million or 1,000,000,000.

Outside the United States, it is ambiguous and could mean either a thousand million (1,000,000,000) or a million million (1,000,000,000,000).

The thousand million version was adopted by the United States from French usage. The million million version was adopted from British or German usage. Ironically, while the United States stuck with the French usage, France later adopted the British usage. But today, even the British are drifting toward the US usage. The official government definition of billion has been changed by law to a thousand million, but that does not necessarily reflect common usage of the term in Britain.

There is a word, "milliard," that unambiguously means a thousand million, but it is rarely used in the English-speaking world. Outside the US, it is a good idea to avoid the word "billion" and to use terms such as thousand million or million million instead. It is also a good idea to avoid the term if what you write may be read by someone outside the US.

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