I was astounded to find that a Chief Procurement Officer of a major electrical retailer used the word “squillion” in the CPO Agenda Executive Roundtable this past May in London on budgeting for a wider influence. In order for Procurement to get a seat at the table, it has to first impress the CFO. To do that, it not only has to speak the language of finance, but use real numbers!
In North America, and in the general scientific community, these are the units of the Base 10 number system. Note that squillion is NOT on the list!
| Unit | Term |
| 1 | One |
| 10 | Ten |
| 100 | Hundred |
| 1,000 | Thousand |
| 1,000,000 | Million |
| 1,000,000,000 | Billion |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | Trillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000 | Quadrillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Quintillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Sextillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Septillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Octillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Nonillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Decillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Undecillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Duodecillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | Tredecillion |
| etc. | etc. |
Now you know. (And don’t make me tell you again! Or I might give Wacko back his industrial strength mallet.)