What comes after a trillion?
After a trillion comes a quadrillion, which has 15 zeros. Then come quintillion (18), sextillion (21), septillion (24), octillion (27), nonillion (30) and decillion (33).
In the short scale, each name is a thousand times larger than the one before. The names come from Latin numbers: a quadrillion uses quad- for four, quintillion uses quint- for five and so on. A trillion itself comes from tri-, for three.
These numbers appear in science. The number of grains of sand on all of Earth's beaches has been estimated at several quintillion, and the number of stars in the observable universe at hundreds of sextillions or more.
Even bigger names
Beyond decillion, names continue: undecillion, duodecillion and up to centillion, which is 10 to the power of 303. A googol, 10 to the power of 100, is a special name that does not fit this pattern.
Did You Know?
The metric prefixes for very large numbers go up to quetta, meaning 10 to the power of 30, which was added in 2022.