million

Word family

Related topics: Numbers

mil·lion /ˈmɪljən/ S3 W1 number (plural million or millions)

1 HMNthe number 1,000,000 1,000,000 百万

The book sold more than a million copies.

这本书售出了一百多万册。

two/three/four etc million

seven million dollars

700万美元

£37 million of new investment

3,700万英镑的新投资额

millions of pounds/dollars etc

Millions of pounds were lost in Western aid.

西方援助少了数百万英镑。

2 LOT/LARGE NUMBER OR AMOUNTan extremely large number of people or things 极其庞大的数目；许多，无数

a million

I’ve got a million ideas.

我主意多得很。

millions of something

She has millions of friends.

她有很多朋友。

3 not/never in a million years spokenNEVER used to emphasize that something is impossible or very unlikely to happen 一百万年以后也不，永远也不

She’ll never believe me. Not in a million years.

她决不会相信我，永远不会。

Examples from the Corpus

not/never in a million years• I never would have guessed in a million years!• He was rich as Croesus, something he had never expected to be, not in a million years.• No parent is going to believe this pigtail story, not in a million years.• I still had to find Wally and attempt to explain what I would never in a million years be able to explain.• Never in a million years did I think we'd lose.• It is based on a true story so outrageous that it would never in a million years have passed muster as fiction.• The real reason for her lack of promotion, she knew, would never in a million years occur to him.• You'd never in a million years see a dancing man in a field in the country.

4. look/feel like a million dollars/bucks informal especially American EnglishAmEBEAUTIFUL/GOOD-LOOKING to look very attractive or feel very happy and healthy 看起来有吸引力/感觉很愉快[精神]

Examples from the Corpus

look/feel like a million dollars/bucks• I felt like a million dollars.

5 in a million informal

a) the best of all possible people or things 百里挑一的

She’s a wife in a million.

她是百里挑一的好妻子。

He’s so generous. He’s one in a million.

他这么慷慨大方，真是无人能及。

b) used to show how unlikely something is 可能性非常小的

It was a chance in a million that we’d find a fossil.

我们找到化石的可能性微乎其微。

Examples from the Corpus

a chance in a million• In fact they were saved by a chance in a million.• It was a chance in a million, and if he did not grasp it, one of his competitors would.

—millionth adjectiveadj

The park has just received its millionth visitor.

公园刚刚迎来了它的第一百万名游客。

—millionth noun [countableC]

Examples from the Corpus

million• The $ 150 million bond has not yet been priced, said spokeswoman Mercedes Poblete.• The derivatives trading business lost $ 32 million in the quarter, compared with $ 28 million in profits a year earlier.• It sought a $ 400 million judgment.• Jim sits in front of four computer screens, controlling de-inking equipment that cost $ 42 million to install.• Simons also is trying to find corporate donors to buy a $ 2. 5 million video scoreboard.• Latinos, with 2 million voters in California, are the fastest-growing minority in the country.• By April 1981 the lake had a hundred million weevils, but in August came disaster.

two/three/four etc million• Lourdes is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites for Catholics in the world, drawing over four million a year.• Only four million homes were owner-occupied 40 years ago compared with 15 million today.• Just over two million of our pupils sit down to a knife-and-fork meal at midday.• Stop the suffering ... two million pounds to help victims of domestic violence.• To descend into Olduvai Gorge - back two million years in time - is humbling.• For three million years, it had circled Saturn, waiting for a moment of destiny that might never come.• We must assume that creatures whose machines still function after three million years may build a society equally long-lasting.• Mind or intelligence had not been involved; those eons were empty of all that touched the emotions. Three million years!

From Longman Business Dictionary