A common shortening of millimetre in spoken English is “mil”. This can cause confusion since in the United States, “mil” traditionally means a thousandth of an inch. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. 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.
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However, there has been a growing tendency to use K as the symbol for thousands instead of M. Abbreviating one million dollars is done using the above abbreviations. Generally, the abbreviation with two M’s is petty cash preferred in finance. When plural, as in “millions,” it refers to multiples of 1,000,000.
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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. The word “million” is not a commonly abbreviated https://www.bookstime.com/ word, but its abbreviations still have their place. An abbreviation for million is most often seen in financial documents and paperwork. 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.
Millimetre
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. However, I often see where those who are dealing with financing (banks and investment houses for bonds) use the MM for millions of dollars. I generally use $___MM, which was, and still is, often used by accountants and economists. Before “k” was mm meaning adopted as the colloquial way of writing a thousand (i.e. $35k to mean $35,000), it was common to use “M” instead; “M” being the Roman Numeral for 1,000.
- If you’re confused about the letter designations that stand for thousands and millions, you’re not alone.
- This document is written for a general professional audience.
- The best path would be to determine what your audience is most likely to understand.
- In Japanese typography, these square symbols are used for laying out unit symbols without distorting the grid layout of text characters.
- However, millions range from 1,000,000 to 999,999,999 so there can be a maximum of eight zeros if you are referencing a 100 million (100,000,000).
- If K and MM are used, it’s bad style because the symbols are being mixed up.
For the past 52 years, Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as an accounting supervisor, manager, consultant, university instructor, and innovator in teaching accounting online. At Old Republic Surety we seek to deliver transparency and clarity in our communications. If you see an abbreviation that is confusing or unclear, please reach out to your local underwriter or branch for clarification, even if you are just asking for a friend. If you would like to learn more about Old Republic Surety and some of our services like Commercial Surety Bonds, and Contract Bonds, or just want more information, don’t hesitate to contact us today. As one discovers from the many variant opinions this topic generates significant misunderstanding.
What are the correct abbreviations for millions, billions and trillions in a financial context?
Other numbers, such as “thousand,” have more interesting abbreviations, such as “k.” The three letters “mil” are very clearly defined as mbeaning million, so you shouldn’t run into any issues. K is also used in computing to mean “kilobyte,” but mostly in commercial contexts as a shortening of KB (see CMOS 10.49). To further muddy the waters, K can also mean “kelvin,” which is the base unit of temperature.
