zillionairenoun
Factsheet
What does the noun zillionaire mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zillionaire. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun zillionaire?
| 1940 | 0.0011 |
| 1950 | 0.0017 |
| 1960 | 0.0026 |
| 1970 | 0.0036 |
| 1980 | 0.0049 |
| 1990 | 0.0054 |
| 2000 | 0.0062 |
| 2010 | 0.0075 |
How is the noun zillionaire pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
Where does the noun zillionaire come from?
Earliest known use
1920s
The earliest known use of the noun zillionaire is in the 1920s.
OED's earliest evidence for zillionaire is from 1926, in Oakland (California) Tribune.
zillionaire is formed within English, by derivation.
Etymons: zillion n., ‑aire suffix.
Nearby entries
- Zilavka, n.1926–
- zilch, n. & adj.1925–
- zilch, v.1957–
- zill, n.1754–
- zilla, n.1772–
- -zilla, comb. form
- zilladar, n.1763–
- Zil lane, n.1985–
- zilla parishad, n.1957–
- zillion, n. & adj.1920–
- zillionaire, n.1926–
- zillionth, n. & adj.1940–
- zimb, n.1790–
- Zimba, n.1625–
- Zimbabwe, n.1891–
- Zimbabwean, adj. & n.1961–
- zimbel, n.1888–
- zimme, n.1848–63
- Zimmer, n.1951–
- zina, n.1817–
- zinc, n.1651–
Etymology
Meaning & use
- 1926–A person of enormous wealth.
- 1926
A fortune left by his uncle, ‘a zillionaire’.
Oakland (California) Tribune 13 December 26/3 - 1959
He's a zillionaire himself... He's crawling with money.
I. Fleming, Goldfinger iv. 50 - 1969
A sprinkling of..Texas zillionaires, film stars, socialites and international playboys.
Daily Telegraph 15 August (Colour Supplement) 21/3 - 1999
Silicon Valley zillionaires make in 15 minutes on the stock market what they pay their housekeepers in a year.
Time 11 October 34/1
- jingle-boya1640–A coin, spec. a sovereign; also, a man who has plenty of money in his pockets.
- four-millioneer1667One who is worth four millions of money.
- plum1709–74slang. A person in possession of one hundred thousand pounds; a rich person. Obsolete.
- millionary1786–1882= millionaire, n. Obsolete.
- millionaire1795–A person whose assets are worth at least a million pounds (dollars, etc.); a person of great wealth. In later use also (more loosely): a person who…
- money bag1820–colloquial (occasionally derogatory). A person characterized as having or desiring money; a wealthy person. Also of a group of people, a country…
- billionaire1841–A person possessing assets worth at least a billion dollars, pounds, or other monetary unit. Also more generally: a person who is extremely wealthy.
- millionista1843–= millionaire, n.
- trimillionaire1848–A person possessed of three millions of money (pounds, dollars, francs, etc.).
- multimillionaire1858–A person with assets worth several or many millions (of dollars, pounds, etc.).
- trillionaire1861–A person possessing assets worth at least a trillion dollars, pounds, or other monetary unit. Also more generally: a person who is extremely wealthy.
- millioner1865–82= millionaire, n.
- quadrillionairea1876–A person with assets worth at least a quadrillion (of dollars, pounds, etc.).
- thousandaire1896–One who has a thousand pounds.
- milliardaire1897–A person possessing a thousand million pounds (dollars, etc.); an immensely wealthy person.
- multibillionaire1906–A person with assets worth several or many billions (of pounds, dollars, etc.).
- squillionaire1914–A person who is extraordinarily wealthy.
- zillionaire1926–A person of enormous wealth.
- jillionaire1938–A person of enormous, esp. endless or unquantifiable, wealth.
- multi1950–= multimillionaire, n.
- mega-millionaire1968–A multimillionaire.
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
Consonants
- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence
Vowels
- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
View the pronunciation model here.
Consonants
- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing
* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence
Vowels
- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
View the pronunciation model here.
Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.
Consonants
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values
- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige
Vowels
- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot
Frequency
zillionaire typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zillionaire is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of zillionaire, n., 1940–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.
| Decade | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 1940 | 0.0011 |
| 1950 | 0.0017 |
| 1960 | 0.0026 |
| 1970 | 0.0036 |
| 1980 | 0.0049 |
| 1990 | 0.0054 |
| 2000 | 0.0062 |
| 2010 | 0.0075 |
Frequency of zillionaire, n., 2017–2024
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.
| Period | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 0.014 |
| 2018 | 0.013 |
| 2019 | 0.012 |
| 2020 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 0.0079 |
| 2023 | 0.0079 |
| 2024 | 0.0066 |