Volume 7: Number Units 数の単位

 

Kotoba zamurai articles are written to be a non-systematic approach to learning unusual, but useful words. While these not-so-serious articles are written with the upper-beginner to intermediate in mind, even beginners should be able to get something out of them. If not, I may have wasted 15 minutes of your life... I will leave it up to you to take the chance.

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Volume 7: Number names　数の単位

I'm sure you know 一 (ichi 1) and you have probably heard of 兆 (chou 1,000,000,000,000), but have you ever heard of 無量大数?

無量大数 originated in an ancient Japanese book on math and numbers in 1632. It originally meant 10⁸⁸, and while there are still people who hold to that meaning, most moderns (apparently) take it to mean 10⁶⁸.

Honestly, anything above 1 may not be extremely useful, but just in case you find yourself counting particles of anti-matter or the amount the government spends on square-widgets-for-round-holes, here is a chart to help:

1	一	ichi
10	十	juu
100	百	hyaku
1,000	千	sen
10,000	万	man
100,000,000	億	oku
1,000,000,000,000	兆	chou
1016	京	kei
1020	垓	gai
1024	杼	jo
1028	穣	jou
1032	溝	kou
1036	澗	kan
1040	正	sei
1044	載	sai
1048	極	goku
1052	恒河沙	gougasha
1056	阿僧祇	asougi
1060	那由他	nayuta
1064	不可思議	fukashigi
1068	無量大数	muryoutaisuu

不可思議 is also used to mean 'really 不思議' = mysterious; incomprehensible

不可思議な現象 fukashigi no genshou - a mysterious phenomenon
不可思議なる宇宙 fukashigi naru uchuu - the unfathomable universe

For more information on 無量大数, see here. And for a fuller table of numbers including fractions, see here.