I have worked in equity markets for 20 years and poor abbreviations drive me crazy. Regretfully, until the USA goes metric there’s going to continue to be problem with this. In Japanese typography, these square symbols are used for laying out unit symbols without distorting the grid layout of text characters.
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- This is ambiguous; hence, if you wish to be unambiguous the use of M to mean either thousands or millions is to be avoided.
- In its simplest terms, a million is “one thousand thousand”.
- If you’re looking to avoid the word million altogether, you won’t have much luck.
Can you solve 4 words at once?
In this article, we will teach you how to abbreviate the word and how to use the abbreviation for “million.” Let’s first understand what million means. I have had the same dilemma and come to the conclusion that using k for thousands and MM for millions is a reasonable and pragmatic thing to do. 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). You can also use the abbreviation “mil” in casual conversation. You might hear something along the lines of “He dropped a couple mil on a new car,” or perhaps “How many mils is that house?
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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 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.
How Do You Abbreviate Million Dollars?
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- Traditionally, M is used as the symbol for thousands and MM for millions in the business world, particularly in accounting.
- ” This abbreviation works for both spoken and written dialogue, and is easily recognizable.
For the past 52 years, Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as an accounting supervisor, https://www.bookstime.com/ 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.
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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.
This practice was across the board – exam reports, internal reporting, and so on. unearned revenue The millimetre (international spelling; SI unit symbol mm) or millimeter (American spelling) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length. Territory includes Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Utah. Darrel has over 30 years of proven success and is skilled in developing relationships with internal and external stakeholders to drive superior business results. In the general environment of municipal government, for dollars we use K for thousands, M for millions and B for billions.
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 preferred in finance. When plural, as in “millions,” it refers to multiples of 1,000,000.
Other numbers, such as “thousand,” have more interesting abbreviations, such as “k.” The three letters “mil” are mm meaning 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.
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 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.