Regardless of why you are trying to abbreviate the word “million,” you have come to the right place. In this article, we will teach you how to abbreviate the word and how to use the abbreviation for “million.” Let’s first understand what million means.
Abbreviations for “Million”
Million is commonly abbreviated in financial documents or letters. In these documents, million is generally abbreviated as:
- M (also m or m.)
- MM (also mm or mm.) – Preferred
- mil
It may also be abbreviated as mil. The most common abbreviation in business settings is MM.
What Does Million Mean?
The word “million” is defined as the number 1,000,000. When plural, as in “millions,” it refers to multiples of 1,000,000. In its simplest terms, a million is “one thousand thousand”. The word “million” is most often used in reference to money, but is also frequently used in exaggeration. The word “million” can be paired with the suffix “-aire” to form the word millionaire which indicates an individual with a million or more dollars.
Examples
She won a million dollars in the lottery.
He has millions of coupons in his junk drawer.
The founder of the company went on to become a millionaire.
She just sold millions of dollars in stocks.
He just made millions selling his Bitcoin.
Is it M or MM for million?
As stated above, MM is generally used in business to represent millions since the letter M by itself has historically meant 1,000. That said, if your organization uses M and it doesn’t cause confusion, you are free to use M to abbreviate one million.
How Do You Abbreviate Million Dollars?
Abbreviating one million dollars is done using the above abbreviations. Generally, the abbreviation with two M’s is preferred in finance. So a million dollars is written as $1MM.
One thing to consider is that when writing about large amounts of money, the words “million” or “billion” are often left out altogether, as are superfluous zeroes. It’s then up to the reader to note the context, with the document stating the place value once at the beginning and not again.
Examples of Abbreviating Millions
The bank’s budget is set at $32MM. (The bank’s budget is set at $32,000,000 dollars).
We will allocate $10 mm to expansion operations.
The other $22MM is yet to be determined.
The price of the house is $10.3M. (The price of the house is 10,300,000 dollars).
Thanks a mil, it means a lot.
We gave $1mm to the charity organization.
We sold one m. books and. around 2 m. magazines.
Synonyms for Million
If you’re looking to avoid the word million altogether, you won’t have much luck. The only other option is to write your entire number numerically or even convert it to scientific notation.
The word million is often used as a form of exaggeration, in which case it’s a bit easier to replace. For example:
He has millions of cars! / He has several cars.
She eats a million apples everyday. / She eats quite a few apples everyday.
There were a million flies outside our house. / There were countless flies outside our house.
When to Use the Abbreviation
The word “million” is not a commonly abbreviated word, but its abbreviations still have their place. An abbreviation for million is most often seen in financial documents and paperwork. Swap the word “million” for “mil” or “mm” to avoid redundant language but to still be specific in how large numbers you’re working with. Other numbers, such as “thousand,” have more interesting abbreviations, such as “k.” The three letters “mil” are very clearly defined as mbeaning million, so you shouldn’t run into any issues.
You can also use the abbreviation “mil” in casual conversation. You might hear something along the lines of “He dropped a couple mil on a new car,” or perhaps “How many mils is that house?” This abbreviation works for both spoken and written dialogue, and is easily recognizable.
How Many Zeros in a Million?
One million has six zeros and one one. For example, 1,000,000. However, millions range from 1,000,000 to 999,999,999 so there can be a maximum of eight zeros if you are referencing a 100 million (100,000,000).
How Do You Write 1 Million in Numbers?
There are several ways to write one million in numbers. The first is to write a 1 followed by six zeros: 1,000,000.
You can also use exponents. The following exponents are equal to one million:
- 10^6
- 100^3
- 1000^2
- 1,000,000,000,000^(1/2)
Also, depending on the country, locals might write one million in different ways including the following:
- United States and United Kingdom: 1,000,000
- Switzerland: 1′000′000
- Germany and other European countries: 1.000.000
- Russia: 1˙234˙567
- China: 100,0000 or 100万0000
- France and Australia: 1 000 000
- Austria (historically, but not currently): 1,000.000
- India (some systems) 10,00,000
How Many Commas Does a Million Have?
Any number referencing a million has two commas. For example, 10 million is written in numbers as 10,000,000.
“MM (also mm or mm.) – Preferred” – this may be the convention, but it makes no sense.
I’m baffled by the logic that if in Roman Numerals “M” means 1000, then “MM” implies “1000 times 1000”. This is incongruous, since in fact, using Roman Numerals, “MM” actually means 2000!
However, in SI (System Internationale), “M” is mega = million. Therefore, expressing 1 million dollars as “$1M” makes much more sense than “$1MM”.
I’m an engineer, so don’t get me started on “m” and “mm”… “mil” in scientific notation means a millionth of an inch, so I would avoid this as well.
Scientific notation, “1E6”, makes sense to me, but is not customarily used with monetary quantities. I’ll stick with the single “M”, thank you.