Number to Words
Numbers in words, 0 to 1,000,000,000
Guides to writing numbers
Writing numbers out in words sucks
Cheques, legal contracts, invoices: they can all make our lives miserable. But: a written form is harder to alter and harder to misread: a stray digit can turn 100 into 1,000, but "one hundred" leaves no room for doubt. That's exactly why banks and lawyers ask for both the figure and the words and we will have to suck it up.
English groups large numbers in threes: thousands, millions, billions, trillions. You read each group of three digits on its own — "two hundred and thirty-four" — and then add the scale word for that group. So 234,567 becomes "two hundred and thirty-four thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven". This converter follows the short-scale system used in modern British and American English, where a billion is a thousand million.
If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty: there are a lot of little rules that can trip you up.
Numbers in words: quick reference
Written and checked by Thijs Roes. Last checked . Scale names beyond nonillion follow the Conway-Wechsler system.