Millionen

Millionen is the plural of the German noun Million, meaning a quantity of one million or, more broadly, many millions. It is used as a noun to denote large numbers and in combination with numerals: eine Million (1,000,000), drei Millionen (3,000,000). In phrases like Millionen von Menschen, it means “millions of people.” The word is feminine; the singular is die Million, the plural die Millionen. Genitive and dative forms vary with case and determiner, for example einer Million (genitive singular) and zweier Millionen / den Millionen (plural forms with appropriate determiners).

Etymology: The term derives from Italian milione, from Latin mille “thousand” with an augmentative suffix. It entered German in the Middle Ages and is cognate with the English million and the French million.

Usage notes: In modern German, Million denotes 10^6. Larger scales use Milliarde (10^9) and Billion (10^12). In fixed expressions, in Millionenhöhe means “in the millions” and Millionen von introduces a large, indefinite quantity. The plural is often used without a determiner when speaking about many people or items, as in “Millionen von Menschen” or “mehrere Millionen Euro.”