milhão

Milhão is a Portuguese noun that denotes the number 1,000,000. It is the standard term for one million, and its plural form is milhões. The word is formed from mil (thousand) with the augmentative suffix -hão, indicating a large quantity.

In use, millón appears in arithmetic, finance, statistics, and everyday speech. It can modify a count directly, as in um milhão, or be used with partículas de in phrases like um milhão de euros or cinco milhões de pessoas. When written, many Portuguese-speaking countries use 1.000.000 to represent one million, with a comma as the decimal separator and a period as the thousands separator (for example, 1.000.000,00).

Regional variations exist in naming larger numbers beyond the million. In Brazilian Portuguese, the sequence typically follows the short scale, with milhão for 10^6 and bilhão for 10^9. In some European Portuguese contexts, speakers may use mil milhões for 10^9, and bilhão for 10^12, though usage can vary by country and style guide. Because naming conventions for large numbers differ across regions, it is advisable to follow local usage in formal writing.

Milhão remains the foundational term for one million in Portuguese, distinct from mil (one thousand) and, in broader contexts, from other terms for larger powers of ten.