The Aegean numerals of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations included a symbol composed of a circle with four dashes 𐄫 to denote tens of thousands.
Additionally, the prefix myria- indicating multiplication times ten thousand (×104), was part of the original metric system adopted by France in 1795.
[8] Although it was not retained after the 11th CGPM conference in 1960, myriameter is sometimes still encountered as a translation of the Scandinavian mile (Swedish & Norwegian: mil) of 10 kilometers (6.21 mi), or in some classifications of wavelengths as the adjective myriametric.
[citation needed] Because of this grouping into fours, higher orders of numbers are provided by the powers of 10,000 rather than 1,000: In China, 10,0002 was 萬萬 in ancient texts but is now called 億 and sometimes written as 1,0000,0000; 10,0003 is 1,0000,0000,0000 or 兆; 10,0004 is 1,0000,0000,0000,0000 or 京; and so on.
This has caused confusion in areas closely related to China such as Hong Kong and Macau, where 兆 is still largely used to mean 10,0003.
[citation needed] 萬 and 万 are also frequently employed colloquially in expressions, clichés, and chengyu (idioms) in the senses of "vast", "numerous", "numberless", and "infinite".
A skeleton key is a 万能钥匙 ("myriad-use key"),[9] the emperor was the "lord of myriad chariots" (萬乘之主),[10] the Great Wall is called 万里长城 ("Myriad-mile Long Wall"), Zhu Xi's statement 月映万川 ("the moon reflects in myriad rivers") had the sense of supporting greater empiricism in Chinese philosophy,[11] and Ha Qiongwen's popular 1959 propaganda poster 毛主席万岁, meaning "Long live Chairman Mao", literally reads as "[May] Chairman Mao [live to be] 10,000 years old".
[12] A similar term is the Old Turkic word tümän,[13] whose variant forms remain in use for "ten thousand" among modern Mongolian, Turkish.