Definition of septillion

The word "septillion" is a mathematical term that refers to the number one followed by 24 zeros (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). The origin of the word itself is relatively recent, as it derives from the combination of the Latin stem "septu-" (meaning seven) and the Latin suffix "-illion" (meaning a large number). The prefix "septu-" originally appeared in the Latin term "septuaginta," which referred to a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible consisting of seventy (septu-) two's (aginta) around 270 BCE. However, in the context of mathematics, "septillion" is much larger than any conceivable real-world quantity and is primarily a theoretical construct used for scientific calculations that involve very large or very small numbers. The naming conventions for these enormous numbers originated in the 1870s due to a need for standardization in scientific notation. The International System of Units uses prefixes, such as "milli-," "kilo-," and "giga-," to denote multiples of one thousand (1,000) for practical purposes. However, the prefixes become impractical for sufficiently large numbers, leading to the need for further prefixes to describe these ultra-large values. The prefixes "tera-," "peta-," and "exa-" were officially added to the International System of Units in 1960, followed by "zetta-" and "yotta-" in 1975. The newest addition, "septillion-," was added in 1991, along with the more recently proposed "octillion-," "nonillion-," "deciillion-," and "undecillion-" (though these latter four have not yet gained widespread usage). In summary, the origin of "septillion" can be traced back to the Latin prefix "septu-," which has evolved over time to refer to an enormous number in the context of science and mathematics, highlighting the need for increasingly large prefixes to describe the magnitude of extremely large or small numbers.