億

yì

hundred million; innumerable, many

Meaning

Literal: One hundred million ($10^8$). Used in administrative, accounting, or mathematical contexts.
Rhetorical/Hyperbolic: Innumerable, countless, myriad, or vast. In philosophical, poetic, or religious texts, the glyph often functions as a marker of scale rather than a precise digit.
Buddhist Contexts: Frequently used in sutras to denote the incomprehensible or the infinite (e.g., regarding kalpas, buddhas, or cosmic quantities).

Numeral/Noun: Standard usage as a specific quantity.
Adjectival: When modifying a noun in a non-technical context, it often functions as an adjective meaning "limitless" or "vast."

Technical Variance: While $10^8$ is the standard decimal value, early technical treatises on mathematics or astronomy occasionally employed competing systems for large numbers. If the text is a specialized scientific work, verify the specific numeric scale being used.
Contextual Pivot: Determine if the author is counting (ledger) or marveling (hymn). If 億 appears alongside terms like 無量 (measureless) or 無數 (numberless), it should be treated as "innumerable."

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.