sextillion

/sɛksˈtɪljən/number

sextillion is spelled S-E-X-T-I-L-L-I-O-N: 10 letters. It appears about once in every 79 million words in written English, the 282,993rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a number, sextillion means “A trillion billion: 1 followed by 21 zeros, 10²¹” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in sextillion?

Letters	10: S-E-X-T-I-L-L-I-O-N
In writing	about once in every 79 million words; the 282,993rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is sextillion?

Sextillion appears about once in every 79 million words in written English, the 282,993rd most frequent word form in the list.

sextillion0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sextillion?

/sɛksˈtɪljən/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Denendaden-sextillion.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sextillion.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does sextillion mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

number

1
AustraliaUKUSA trillion billion: 1 followed by 21 zeros, 10²¹.
2
AustraliaUKdatedA million quintillion: 1 followed by 36 zeros, 10³⁶.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sextillion in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	trilliard (a trillion billion, 1021 – see also trilliard), frantic, sextillion (a million quintillion, 1036 – see also…)
German	Trilliarde (a trillion billion, 1021 – see also trilliard), Sextillion (a million quintillion, 1036 – see also…)
Portuguese	sextilhão (a trillion billion, 1021 – see also trilliard)
Spanish	mil trillones, sextillón (a trillion billion, 1021 – see also trilliard)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sextillion come from?

From Classical Latin sextus (“sixth”) + -illion; originally the sixth power of a million, 10³⁶. Compare slightly earlier quintillion, Middle French sixlion (1484) and French sextillion (1765). First attested in 1689 in John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (see the quotation).