Sextillions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A numerical value representing one thousand raised to the power of six, equating to a one followed by twenty-one zeros
2. Denoting a quantity in the scale of large numbers, specifically indicating a trillion times a trillion
3. Used primarily in mathematical contexts, this term refers to an extremely large value, specifically 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Etymology: Sextillion is a plural of "sextillion", so it is simply the plural of the number, and its story is the story of the singular. The term was built from Classical Latin "sextus" ("sixth") and the suffix "-illion", which was already used in names for large numbers. Its first recorded appearance in English came in 1689, in John Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", which makes it one of the earlier English uses of this kind of large-number name. The original sense was different from the one it has now. "Sextillion" was first the sixth power of a million, meaning a million multiplied by itself six times, which gives a one followed by thirty-six zeros. The modern value of one thousand to the sixth power, a one followed by twenty-one zeros, came later, as the naming system for large numbers was reorganized. The earlier name "quintillion" follows the same pattern, and the French "sextillion" from 1765 shows the term was taken up across European languages.