googol

See also: Googol

English

WOTD – 23 January 2009

Etymology

Coined by nine-year-old Milton Sirotta in 1920, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, who had asked Milton to think of a name for the 100th power of ten. The word was first published in the book Mathematics and the Imagination (1940).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡuː.ɡəl/, /ˈɡuː.ɡɒl/
• (General American) enPR: go͞o′gəl, go͞o′gŏl, IPA^(key): /ˈɡu.ɡəl/, /ˈɡu.ɡɑl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːɡəl
• Homophones: google, Google

Numeral

googol (plural googols)

2. The number $10^{100}$, or ten to the power of a hundred. Equivalent to ten duotrigintillion (short scale), or ten sexdecilliard (long scale). [from 1920.]
   • 1940, Edward Kasner, James [Roy] Newman, “New Names for Old”, in Mathematics and the Imagination, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, page 23:

     Words of wisdom are spoken by children at least as often as by scientists. The name "googol" was invented by a child (Dr. Kasner's nine-year-old nephew) who was asked to think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1 with a hundred zeros after it. He was very certain that this number was not infinite, and therefore equally certain that it had to have a name. […] A googolplex is much bigger than a googol, much bigger than a googol times a googol. A googol times a googol would be 1 with 200 zeros, whereas a googolplex is one with a googol of zeros. You will get some idea of the size of this very large but finite number from the fact that there would not be enough room to write it, if you went to the farthest star, touring all the nebulae and putting down zeros every inch of the way.

   • 1979, Steven Pinker, “Formal models of language learning”, in Language, Cognition, and Human Nature:

     For example, in considering all the finite state grammars that use seven terminal symbols and seven auxiliary symbols (states), [...] he must test over a googol (10^100) candidates.

   • 1980, Carl Sagan, chapter IX, in Cosmos:

     If the universe were packed solid with neutrons, say, so there was no empty space anywhere, there would still only be about 10¹²⁸ particles in it, quite a bit more than a googol but trivially small compared to a googolplex.

Derived terms

• Google
• googolbyte
• googolgon
• googolplex
• googolplexplex
• googolplexth
• googolth
• googillion

Translations

1 followed by 100 zeros

• Bulgarian: гугол (gugol)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 古高爾／古高尔 (gǔgāo'ěr)

• Dutch: googol (nl)
• Esperanto: guglo (eo)
• Estonian: googol (et)
• Finnish: googol (fi)
• French: gogol (fr) m
• German: Googol (de) n
• Greek: Γκούγκολ (Gkoúgkol)
• Hebrew: גוגול (he)
• Hungarian: googol (hu)
• Japanese: 10の100乗 (10 no 100-jō), グーゴル (gūgoru)
• Lithuanian: gugolas
• Malay:

  Jawi: ڤولوه دووتريݢينتيليون

  Rumi: puluh duotrigintilion

• Norwegian: googol

  Bokmål: googol

  Nynorsk: googol

• Polish: gugol (pl) m
• Portuguese: googol (pt) m
• Russian: гугол (ru) (gugol)
• Spanish: gúgol (es) m
• Swedish: googol (sv) c
• Thai: กูกอล (googon)
• Ukrainian: гугол (huhol)

References

• “googol”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “googol”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Finnish

Etymology

From English googol.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡoːɡol/, [ˈɡo̞ːɡo̞l]
• Rhymes: -oːɡol
• Syllabification^(key): goo‧gol

Numeral

googol

1. googol

Declension

Inflection of googol (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative		googol	googolit
genitive		googolin	googolien
partitive		googolia	googoleja
illative		googoliin	googoleihin
		singular	plural
nominative		googol	googolit
accusative	nom.	googol	googolit
	gen.	googolin
genitive		googolin	googolien
partitive		googolia	googoleja
inessive		googolissa	googoleissa
elative		googolista	googoleista
illative		googoliin	googoleihin
adessive		googolilla	googoleilla
ablative		googolilta	googoleilta
allative		googolille	googoleille
essive		googolina	googoleina
translative		googoliksi	googoleiksi
abessive		googolitta	googoleitta
instructive		—	googolein
comitative		—	googoleine

Portuguese

Numeral

googol m (plural googols)

1. googol (1 followed by 100 zeros)