Gazillionaires

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used to describe individuals possessing an overwhelmingly large and often immeasurable amount of wealth
2. Referring informally to extremely wealthy people whose riches surpass conventional billionaires
3. An exaggerated way of labeling those with vast fortunes that appear almost limitless in nature

Etymology: "Gazillion" is a playful numeral, a relative of "zillion" that imitates the "-illion" ending of "million" and "billion." The extra "g" at the front adds the exaggerated, cartoonish quality that makes such words useful for hyperbole. Nobody uses it to count anything. It means "a huge amount," and its exact size is never fixed. The ending "-aire" comes from French, where "millionnaire" was borrowed into English as "millionaire." "Billionaire" followed the same pattern, and attaching "-aire" to gazillion produced this joking term for someone whose fortune outruns even the billionaires. Because the formation is informal rather than technical, it has no fixed threshold, so the figure it describes depends on the speaker's sense of scale.

Synonyms: billionaires, millionaires, wealthy individuals, affluent people

Antonyms: poor people, paupers, destitute individuals