billiard

From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“large tree, tree trunk”)), from Proto-Celtic *belyos (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yos (“leaf”), from *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪl.i.ə(ɹ)d/

• Audio (Southern England):

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billiard (plural billiards)

1. A shot in billiards or snooker in which the cue ball strikes two other balls; a carom.
2. (attributive) Pertaining to the game of billiards.

   a billiard table; a billiard ball

3. A dynamical system in which a particle alternates between motion in a straight line and specular reflections from a boundary.

From French billiard, equivalent to bi- (“two”) +‎ -illiard.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪl.i.ɑː(ɹ)d/

billiard (plural billiards)

1. (British, rare) 10¹⁵, a thousand billion (long scale) or a million milliard.

• (10¹⁵): a short scale quadrillion

• Previous: billion. Next: trillion.
• Symbolic: 10¹⁵ = 1,000,000,000,000,000

From bi- (“two”) +‎ -illiard.

• IPA^(key): /bi.ljaʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

billiard m (plural billiards)

1. quadrillion (10¹⁵)