Meaning of 亿
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- 100 million
How to use 亿
亿 (yì) means 100 million, and Chinese counts large numbers in units of 万 (10,000) and 亿 rather than thousands and millions. It is common in talk about populations, money and economics. Example: 中国有十四亿人。(Zhōngguó yǒu shísì yì rén.) China has 1.4 billion people.
亿 has the person radical 亻 on the left and 乙 on the right. Picture one person standing in front of a crowd of 100 million people.
Common mistake: Learners often translate 亿 as "billion" or "million". It is exactly 100 million, so 十亿 (shíyì) is one billion and 一百亿 is ten billion. Also do not confuse it with 忆 (yì, remember), which has the heart radical 忄 instead of the person radical 亻.
亿 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
亿 yì · 100 million · 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
Related words
Words that share a character with 亿.
Questions about 亿
What does 亿 mean?
亿 (yì) means "100 million" and is used as a numeral.
How do you write 亿?
亿 is made of 1 character: 亿 (3 strokes). That is 3 strokes in total.
Is 亿 an HSK word?
Yes. 亿 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 亿 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 亿 is written 億.
How do you say one billion in Chinese?
One billion is 十亿 (shíyì), literally ten times 100 million. For 100 million itself, say 一亿 (yí yì), with 一 changing to the second tone before the fourth tone.
What does 亿万 mean if it is not a real number?
亿万 (yìwàn) is used loosely to mean a huge, countless amount, like "millions and millions". You see it in phrases such as 亿万富翁 (yìwànfùwēng), a billionaire or very rich person.