Quattuordecillions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A very large number written as one followed by forty-eight zeros, equal to ten raised to the forty-eighth power
2. The cardinal value representing a thousand raised to the power of sixteen, or ten to the forty-eighth power
3. Any of the enormous quantities equal to 10 multiplied by itself forty-eight times, used in counting vast amounts

Etymology: The "-illion" in "quattuordecillion" is not a classical ending at all. It comes from "million," the number that English borrowed from Italian in the Middle Ages. Its word-forms passed through Old French and Middle English before English speakers began treating the final syllables as a reusable tag for large numbers. Each name pairs a Latin number word with that tail, so "quattuordecillion" joins "quattuordecim," meaning "fourteen," to the suffix "-illion." The pattern follows the system of large numbers in which each step is named after a Latin count plus "-illion." Fourteen-fold repetitions of a thousand-cube style growth give the sequence its shape, and the name for the number 10 to the 84th power is built this way. The word is a compound of a Latin base with a modern English suffix, so no ancient Roman ever counted with it. Because of that construction, "quattuordecillions" is simply the English plural of the noun, formed by adding the usual "-s" to the end.