Millions, Billions and Other Large Numbers

I have worked in equity markets for 20 years and poor abbreviations drive me crazy. Regretfully, until the USA goes metric there’s going to continue to be problem with this. I have had the same dilemma and come to the conclusion that using k for thousands and mm for millions is a reasonable and pragmatic thing to do. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

For instance, if a company reports a revenue of $50 MM for the year 2022, it means that the company earned a total of $50 million for that year. Similarly, if an investor purchases 1 MM shares of a company’s stock, this indicates that the investor has acquired 1 million shares of the company’s stock. If you’re looking to avoid the word million altogether, you won’t have much luck. The only other option is to write your entire number numerically, or even convert it to scientific notation. One thing to consider is that when writing about large amounts of money, the words “million” or “billion” are often left out altogether, as are superfluous zeroes. It’s then up to the reader to note the context, with the document stating the place value once at the beginning and not again.

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For example, the standard Class B rate starts at $25/M for the first $100M; then $15/M for the next $400M; then $10/M for the next $2MM. “M” is the most common abbreviation for “million.” If you’re going to abbreviate “million,” it would usually turn into this form. It makes the most sense considering that “million” starts with the letter “M.” Most abbreviations follow this standard practice. It would be bad form to mix K and MM because they are two different systems of notation. The best path would be to determine what your audience is most likely to understand.

• Swap the word “million” for “mil” or “mm” to avoid redundant language but to still be specific in how large numbers you’re working with.
• For those who were taught numbers before the 1970s, the answer to this question may well have been different depending on where you received your schooling.
• The standard unit of measure is dollars per million BTU’s (mmBtu).
• You’ll find that a lot of UK native speakers won’t even know what “mm” stands for (outside of the “millimeter” measurement that is abbreviated to “mm”).

The Latin numeral MM is frequently used to designate that the units used in presenting information (financial and non-financial) are in millions. The example below shows how figures can be portrayed in millions. Honestly I’m indifferent but inconsistency causes confusion.

Beyond Large Number Abbreviations

This approach combines Roman numerals and abbreviations. It has become less common due to the potential for confusion. If you do use these abbreviations, be sure to clearly define them in the text. The use of two m’s to denote millions is becoming less common. Frequently, in finance and accounting settings now, an analyst will use k to denote thousands and a capitalized M to denote millions.

There are a few different ways to abbreviate large numbers. Some abbreviations for million options may surprise you, as is also true for some of the other large number abbreviations. Unfortunately, there isn’t a consistent approach to labeling units. The least ambiguous approach is to simply write them out in words, such as “$ thousands.” This is CFI’s recommended method, to avoid any potential confusion.

M vs MM for finance abbreviations

Think of your computer expressing bytes of memory as kilobyte, megabyte or gigabyte. However, when it comes to billion, we don’t really see G or MMM as the abbreviation for billion. We are more likely to see a headline that reads the government spent $60B on new project.

• While the letter «k» is the most common abbreviation, there are a few different ways to abbreviate thousand.
• At Old Republic Surety we seek to deliver you transparency and clarity in our communications.
• Traditionally, M is used as the symbol for thousands and MM for millions in the business world, particularly in accounting.
• Our goal is to create English lessons that are easy to understand for everyone.
• Compare values between unit Million with other Number calculation units.

Thus, MM is the same as writing “M multiplied by M,” which is equal to “1,000 times 1,000”, which equals 1,000,000 (one million). This guide will explore how the notation should be used, as well as alternative symbols that are used in practice. This guide will, MM (or lowercase “mm”) denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions. I saw a headline recently in The Daily Journal of Commerce that read the new downtown post office was to be built for $89M. In the world of accounting and financial analysis that reads $89 thousand dollars, but we know from context that the headline writer meant $89 Million dollars. We sometimes have to code switch and use context to determine what the author is telling us.

Correct Abbreviation for “Million” in The UK

This article looks at how we started using million and billion and how the meaning of billion has changed. A global tech company, Tech&Tech, reported total revenue of $800,000,000 for the fiscal year 2021. Calculate the company’s net profit margin and express it in MM. As stated above, MM is generally used in business to represent millions since the letter M by itself has historically meant 1,000. That said, if your organization uses M and it doesn’t cause confusion, you are free to use M to abbreviate one million. “mm” is often left uncapitalized (though there are no specific rules that state which way it should be written).

As a result, «M» simply became shorthand for adding three zeros and thus «MM» became the shorthand for adding six zeros. As one discovers from the many variant opinions this topic generates significant misunderstanding. By placing the first occurrence of a given symbol (abbreviation) in each article or presentation within parentheses you remove all doubt about what you mean. The problem with M is that depending on the audience it can mean either thousands or millions. This is ambiguous; hence, if you wish to be unambiguous the use of M to mean either thousands or millions is to be avoided.

Million Abbreviation: How to Abbreviate Million

In oil and gas, m is used for thousands and mm is for millions. The most commonly seen short forms for thousand, million, billion and trillion in North America and the United Kingdom, respectively, are outlined in the table below. However, it can lead to confusion, particularly in financial contexts.

B for Billion isn’t Greek or Roman; it is just the first letter of the word billion; so much for consistency. While the fields of accounting, banking and finance have adopted the Roman tradition, other fields such as computer programming and the high-tech industry have adopted Greek-influenced abbreviations. K comes from the Greek word kilo which means a thousand. So if we stay consistent with the Greek abbreviations, then billion would be shown as a letter G (Giga).