千亿 (qiān yì) — one hundred billion (10¹¹); hundreds of billions (in informal or approximate usage)

Definition

千亿 (qiān yì) is literally 'a thousand 亿', i.e. 100,000,000,000 — 100 billion in the short scale used in Chinese. Read both characters: qiān (thousand) + yì (100 million).

numeral
one hundred billion (10¹¹)hundreds of billions (in informal or approximate usage)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 千亿。
    Zhè ge xiàng mù de tóu zī gāo dá qiān yì měi yuán.
    The investment in this project is as high as one hundred billion US dollars.
  • 千亿。
    Yín hé xì lǐ yǒu qiān yì kē héng xīng.
    There are one hundred billion stars in the Milky Way.
  • 千亿。
    Quán qiú rén kǒu yǐ jiē jìn qiān yì.
    The global population is approaching one hundred billion.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

千qiānthousand
亿yìhundred million

千 times 亿 gives one hundred billion.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
一一yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 億; 亿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rén
Sound part声符shēngfú
意
意yì億yì
Same sound today

The traditional form 億 pairs 人 (person) with 意 for its sound; the simplified 亿 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the original pieces.

Open 亿 →

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