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googolplex

googolplex

2 9.9
An extremely large number written as 1 followed by a googol of zeros far larger than atoms in the universe
  • noun
  • /ˈɡuːɡəlˌplɛks/
  • Specialized
: googolplex
  • BILLY: Googolplex doofus.

Examples

  • A box large enough to hold, say, a googolplex O-regions should exhaust all those possibilities by a large margin.

    Academic text (2006)
  • One in a googolplex.

  • It's just this side of a googolplex.

  • Such a box would be roughly a googolplex light-years across.

    Academic text (2006)
  • BILLY: Infinity infinity googolplex quadruple doofus.

  • As one might expect, we got yet another "googolplexic" number: 10 to the power of 10^150 (a googolplex is 10 to the power of a googol).

    Academic text (2006)
  • Do I want to live longer than a billion years, live longer than a trillion years, live longer than a googolplex years, live longer than Graham's Number, live so long it has to be expressed in Conway chained arrow notation, live longer than BusyBeaver(100)?

    Blog text (26)
  • A googolplex is an unimaginably large number, represented as 1 followed by a googol of zeros.

  • If you were to write out a googolplex, the number would be far too large to fit on a piece of paper.

  • Calculating a googolplex helps illustrate just how vast numbers can become in mathematics.

Surface Forms

googolplex singular
googolplexes plural

Morphology

googolplex = googol (semi-transparent) = googol + plex

The word is transparently formed from the coined term 'googol' plus the non-productive suffix '-plex', so knowing 'googol' signals a relation but does not by itself make the precise mathematical exponentiation obvious to most learners.

Etymology

Googolplex is built from the playful number googol, a name a nine-year-old made for 'one' followed by 100 zeros, and the ending -plex, like in complex or multiplex, which suggests 'many' or 'folded together'. So, a googolplex is 'one' followed by a googol of zeros, an almost unimaginably large number.