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Kotomora

億

hundred million, 10**8

JLPTN2StatusJōyō · grade 4FrequencyTop 1,000Strokes15

Readings

On'yomi

  • オク

Kun'yomi

—

Nanori

  • お

Meaning

億 centers on the vast number one hundred million (10^8), a concept used for counting extremely large quantities.

Most common words using 億

  • 億おく
    N5

    hundred million; 100,000,000; 10^8

  • 億劫おっくう
    N1

    troublesome; bothersome; tiresome; annoying

  • 億ションおくション

    apartment worth 100 million yen or more; luxury apartment

  • 一億いちおく
    N5

    100,000,000; one hundred million

  • 100億ひゃくおく

    10,000,000,000; ten billion

  • 十億じゅうおく

    1,000,000,000; billion

  • 数億年すうおくねん

    several hundred million years

  • 億万おくまん

    millions and millions

  • 一億一心いちおくいっしん

    national unity (esp. during wartime)

  • 一億総中流いちおくそうちゅうりゅう

    all-Japanese-are-middle-class mentality

  • 一億総懺悔いちおくそうざんげ

    national confession of Japanese war guilt (1945)

  • 一億総白痴化いちおくそうはくちか

    transformation of the population of Japan into idiots (because of television)

  • 億り人おくりびと

    person who has a fortune of at least one hundred million yen; millionaire

  • 億万長者おくまんちょうじゃ

    billionaire; multimillionaire; very rich person

  • 億兆おくちょう

    the people; multitude; masses

  • 億劫がるおっくうがる

    to show unwillingness (to do); to be reluctant (to do); to look annoyed; to show signs of finding something bothersome

  • 十万億土じゅうまんおくど

    eternity; paradise

  • 千億せんおく

    100,000,000,000; hundred billion

  • 巨億きょおく

    millions; vast fortune

Explore all words using 億 →

Study

Etymology

億 combines 亻 (person) with 意, which likely contributes the sound. The character was used to represent a large number, possibly from the idea of a person's thoughts (意) being countless.

Meaning mnemonic

A person (亻) trying to count to a hundred million would need immense thoughts (意). Imagine someone deep in thought, overwhelmed by the sheer size of 100,000,000.

Reading mnemonic

For オク, picture an octopus with a hundred million tentacles: octopus -> オク, and the person (亻) is lost in thought (意) trying to count them all.