novemdecillion dollars
- noun
- /ˌnoʊvɛmˈdɛsɪljən ˈdɑːlərz/
- Informal
- Economists laughed at the idea of printing novemdecillion dollars to solve the crisis.
Examples
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He joked that only a novemdecillion dollars could buy the moon.
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He inherited novemdecillion dollars from his great-grandfather.
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The fundraising target seemed as high as novemdecillion dollars to most participants.
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Can you even imagine having novemdecillion dollars?
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He joked that only a novemdecillion dollars could buy the moon.
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Can you even imagine having novemdecillion dollars?
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The fundraising target seemed as high as novemdecillion dollars to most participants.
Synonyms
A very large, not exact number used to show exaggeration
A very large unknown number used to say something is much bigger than it is
A large amount of money that is higher than expected
A very large number used to mean a huge, not exact amount
A very large not exact number people use to mean a huge amount
Very large in number with no exact amount and said as a joke
How Much
- Informal
- Informal
- Archaic
- US
Surface Forms
Morphology
novemdecillion + dollar
The phrase is compositionally built from a number-word + a currency noun, so in principle the meaning (‘an extremely large sum of money’) follows from its parts. However, 'novemdecillion' is an extremely rare, specialist numeral (not readily understood by a B1 learner and not transparently interpretable from everyday knowledge), so the exact magnitude and everyday comprehension are not fully predictable.
Etymology
Novemdecillion dollars comes from number names: novemdecillion is a word for a number with many zeros, and dollars makes you picture a pile of money too big to count. That's why the phrase is used to mean 'an unimaginably high amount'.