Arab (Indian) to Millions (arab to M)

1 arab (Indian) equals 1,000 millions exactly.

1 arab (Indian) = 1,000 millions

How to convert arab (Indian) to millions

To convert arab (Indian) to millions, multiply the number of arab (Indian) by 1,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply millions by 0.001.

millions = arab (Indian) × 1,000

Example: 10 arab (Indian) = 10,000 millions.

Large-number names differ around the world: this site uses the short scale (billion = 10⁹) by default, and lists the long-scale billion separately.

About these units

Arab (Indian) (arab)

Indian subcontinentTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One hundred crore (10⁹), the same as a short-scale billion. Used in the South Asian number system.

Western numbers are named in steps of a thousand, with a new word at each third power of ten: thousand, million, billion. The Indian system adds a new word at every second power instead, giving lakh for 100,000, crore for 10 million, arab for 1,000 million and kharab for 100,000 million. An arab is a hundred crore, or 10 to the ninth power.

That equals the short-scale billion, so the two words name the same quantity, which sometimes causes confusion between Indian and international usage. Digits are grouped to match: the first three from the right are one group, and then pairs follow, so an arab is written 1,00,00,00,000 rather than 1,000,000,000.

The system is official and preferred in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Indian English publications use lakh and crore for rupee amounts. Nepal and Sri Lanka used it in the past but have moved to the international system, and the Maldives still uses lakh in speech. Sanskrit mathematicians such as Shridhara named large numbers beyond koti in several incompatible ways, so older texts do not always give the same value.

1 arab (Indian) = 1,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Indian numbering system

Million (M)

General & non-SICurrent unit

One million (10⁶).

Million comes from Italian. Old Italian milione was built from mille, a thousand, plus an augmentative ending, so it began as something like a big thousand. The name proved useful as a stem: by 1475 the French mathematician Jehan Adam was already building larger names from it, bymillion and trimillion, for 10¹² and 10¹⁸. The short and long scales agree on the million itself, 1,000,000 or 10⁶, and diverge only for the larger names. The SI prefix mega- stands for 10⁶.

Millions are hard to feel. Counting out a million items one by one is famously laborious, yet a million seconds lasts only about 11.57 days. A billion seconds, by contrast, is roughly 31.7 years.

1 million = 1,000,000 pieces (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Million; Wikipedia: Names of large numbers; BIPM SI Brochure, 9th edition (2019)

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