If you want to read the news, talk about money, or understand global statistics, you need to know how to say billion in German. It’s a word that pops up in economics, tech, population counts — and arguments about government budgets.

The word is die Milliarde. It’s feminine, and the plural is die Milliarden. If you're still wrapping your head around when to use die, my gender video lesson makes the whole system easy to grasp.

Milliarde is one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German, and it's often used to express scale — of money, people, or time.

Examples in all four cases:

Nominative:
Die Milliarde wurde gespendet.
The billion was donated.

Accusative:
Sie investierten eine Milliarde Euro.
They invested a billion euros.

Dative:
Mit einer Milliarde kann man viel bewegen.
You can do a lot with a billion.

Genitive:
Die Zukunft der Milliarde hängt von Innovation ab.
The billion’s future depends on innovation.

Where you’ll hear Milliarde:

• eine Milliarde Euro/Dollar – one billion euros/dollars

• sieben Milliarden Menschen – seven billion people

• Milliardär – billionaire

• Milliardengeschäft – multi-billion deal

• Milliardenverlust – billion-euro loss

• Milliardenhilfe – financial relief in the billions

Typical verbs: investieren, verlieren (lose), spenden (donate), erreichen (reach), umsetzen (generate revenue)
Adjectives: hoch, gigantisch, global, staatlich, geschätzt

Milliarde is not to be confused with Million: Germans use eine Milliarde where Americans say “one billion.” (Watch out: billion in some European languages used to mean a million million — but in German, it always means 1,000,000,000.)

Beginner dialogue using Milliarde:

A: Wie viele Menschen leben auf der Erde?
B: Über acht Milliarden!
A: How many people live on Earth?
B: Over eight billion!

Now it’s your turn. Think of your answer and say it aloud using Milliarde.

“Was würdest du tun, wenn du eine Milliarde Euro hättest?”
What would you do if you had a billion euros?

Speak your answer out loud using Milliarde — it’s a fun way to practice big ideas in German.

Duden entry for “Milliarde”

German Word of the Day
Now you know how to say billion in German — and how die Milliarde appears in news headlines, investments, and global facts.

Download the free illustrated PDF of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German and keep scaling up your fluency with everyday essentials.

Ready for more German Words of the Day?
Check out Mission — and talk about purpose, ambition, and goals.
Or revisit Mist — to learn a safe and funny word for when things go wrong.