Financial and accounting statements historically used a different approach to abbreviating thousand and million. It has become less common due to the potential for confusion. If you do use these abbreviations, be sure to clearly define them in the text. If you’re confused about the letter designations that stand for thousands and millions, you’re not alone. I worked in banking for 27 years (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Bank of America), and my experience in financial services was that M and MM were consistently used for thousands and millions, respectively.
While the letter “k” is the most common abbreviation, there are a few different ways to abbreviate thousand. Please provide values below to convert millimeter [mm] to meter [m], or vice versa. However, it can lead to confusion, particularly in financial contexts. Thus, it is essential to understand the context of using and clarify any potential misunderstandings to avoid confusion. In numerical expressions, “MM” stands for millions (equivalent to 1,000,000), “K” represents thousands (equal to 1,000), and “B” represents billions (equivalent to 1,000,000,000). Territory includes Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Utah.
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- Businesses and finance professionals use MM to express large sums of money and financial metrics.
- 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.
In finance and accounting, MM (or lowercase “mm”) commonly denotes that the units of figures presented are in millions. In this context, MM is the same as writing “M multiplied by M,” which is equal to “1,000 times 1,000,” which equals 1,000,000 (one million). 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.
Convert mm to cm
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. It’s then up to the reader to note the context, with the document stating the place value once at the beginning and not again. “mm” is often left uncapitalized (though there are no specific rules that state which way it should be written). It is Latin for multiplying one “thousand” by itself to create the “million” number. “MM” is an old-fashioned abbreviation, but it still sees some usage today.
You might come across “mm” in scientific or engineering fields, where different values are required, and they can reach well into the millions as a unit. You might not put a lot of thought into your abbreviations, and that’s okay. However, there are official abbreviations out there that you might come across, and it would help to know about them.
However, our abbreviations are a concoction of multiple cultural legacies ranging from Rome, Greece, India, China, and Arabia. If 1,000 multiplied by 1,000 equals 1,000,000, and 1,000 equals M, then we can use the abbreviations to create calculations. Regardless of why you are trying to abbreviate the word “million,” you have come to the right place.
When plural, as in “millions,” it refers to multiples of 1,000,000. The word “million” is most often used in reference to money, but is also frequently used in exaggeration. The word “million” can be paired with the suffix “-aire” to form the word millionaire which indicates an individual with a million or more dollars. While Roman numerals are technically additive (MM is really 1,000 plus 1,000 or 2,000), MM is still a fairly common way of abbreviating millions, especially in certain industries like oil and gas.
Popular Length Unit Conversions
This guide will explore how the notation should be used, as well as alternative symbols that are used in practice. Now that you know several large number abbreviations, you have access to several options you can use in your reports or other forms of writing. You may also find it helpful to review measurement abbreviations for common units. Expand your ability to communicate about quantities and amounts by getting to know various names and expressions for large numbers.
Within finance and accounting, we often find something quite different. For example, a thousand is often abbreviated as (M), a million is abbreviated as (MM), and a billion is abbreviated as (BN) or (MMM). As stated above, MM is generally used in business to represent millions since the letter M by itself has historically meant 1,000. That said, if your organization uses M and it doesn’t cause confusion, you are free to use M to abbreviate one million. “M” is only used as an abbreviation when talking about a lot of money or in scientific communities.
How was the mm abbreviation created?
Other numbers, such as “thousand,” have more interesting abbreviations, such as “k.” The three letters “mil” are very clearly defined as mbeaning million, so you shouldn’t run into any issues. 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. “M” is the most common abbreviation for “million.” If you’re going to abbreviate “million,” it would usually turn into this form. It makes the most sense considering that “million” starts with the letter “M.” Most abbreviations follow this standard practice.
“M” vs. “MM” – What Is The Correct Abbreviation for “Million”?
He is the sole author of all the materials on AccountingCoach.com. Internet advertisers https://turbo-tax.org/ are familiar with CPM which is the cost per thousand impressions.
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. We often find the abbreviation (mm) on financial statements, which stands for millions. Unfortunately, this practice can occasionally cause confusion within the financial industry as multiple numerical abbreviations are used interchangeably within society.
“mm” (which is usually kept in the lower case) is an old-fashioned abbreviation that doesn’t see much common usage. You’ll find that it’s mainly used in the energy sector, but it otherwise doesn’t get recognized. mm million Over 1.8 million professionals use CFI to learn accounting, financial analysis, modeling and more. Start with a free account to explore 20+ always-free courses and hundreds of finance templates and cheat sheets.