Long and short scales

[3] Use of the short scale is found in most English and Arabic speaking countries and Brazil.

The long scale system includes additional names for interleaved values, typically replacing the word ending "-ion" by "-iard".

To avoid confusion, the International System of Units (SI) recommends using the metric prefixes to indicate magnitude.

For most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the United Kingdom largely used the long scale,[4][8] whereas the United States used the short scale,[8] so that the two systems were often referred to as British and American in the English language.

After several decades of increasing informal British usage of the short scale, in 1974 the government of the UK adopted it,[9] and it is used for all official purposes.

For example, British English, French, and Italian historical documents can refer to either the short or long scale, depending on the date of the document, since each of the three countries has used both systems at various times in its history.

The pre-1974 former British English word billion, post-1961 current French word billion, post-1994 current Italian word bilione, Spanish billón, German Billion, Dutch biljoen, Danish billion, Swedish biljon, Finnish biljoona, Slovenian bilijon, Polish bilion, and European Portuguese word bilião (with a different spelling to the Brazilian Portuguese variant, but in Brazil referring to short scale) all refer to 1012, being long-scale terms.

[16][17][18][19][20] In some short scale countries, milliard was defined to 109 and billion dropped altogether, with trillion redefined down to 1012 and so on for the larger numbers.

[7] In many short scale countries, milliard was dropped altogether and billion was redefined down to 109, adjusting downwards the value of trillion and all the larger numbers.

And an example of this follows,a number divided up and punctuated as previouslydescribed, the whole number being 745324 tryllions,804300 byllions 700023 millions 654321.Example: 745324'8043000'700023'654321 ... [sic]The extract from Chuquet's manuscript, the transcription and translation provided here all contain an original mistake: one too many zeros in the 804300 portion of the fully written out example: 745324'8043000 '700023'654321 ... .. hoc est decem myriadum myriadas:quod vno verbo nostrates abaci studiosi Milliartum appellant:quasi millionum millionemTranslation: .. this is ten myriad myriads, which in one word our students of numbers call Milliart, as if a million millions.. milliart/ofte duysent millioenen..Translation: ..milliart / also thousand millions..It should be remembered that "billion" does not mean in American use (which follows the French) what it means in British.

Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop asked the Prime Minister whether he would make it the practice of his administration that when Ministers employ the word 'billion' in any official speeches, documents, or answers to Parliamentary Questions, they will, to avoid confusion, only do so in its British meaning of 1 million million and not in the sense in which it is used in the United States of America, which uses the term 'billion' to mean 1,000 million.

The word 'billion' is now used internationally to mean 1,000 million and it would be confusing if British Ministers were to use it in any other sense.

During the last quarter of the 20th century, most other English-speaking countries (Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, etc.)

For example:[shortscale note 1] Most Arabic-language countries and regions use the short scale with 109 being مليار milyar, except for a few countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE which use the word بليون billion for 109.

For example:[shortscale note 5][43][44] Other countries also use a word similar to trillion to mean 1012, etc.

Some examples of short scale use, and the words used for 109 and 1012, are The long scale is used by most Continental European countries and by most other countries whose languages derive from Continental Europe (with the notable exceptions of Albania, Greece, Romania,[46] and Brazil).

The following countries use naming systems for large numbers that are not etymologically related to the short and long scales: The long and short scales are both present on most continents, with usage dependent on the language used.