Number to words
Turn a number into English words: a plain number, an ordinal such as twenty-first, or an amount of money written out for a cheque or invoice.
Runs in your browser; nothing you type leaves your device
In words
Whole numbers up to 36 digits (less than one undecillion) and decimals of any length. The words are always in English, whatever the language of the page. Currency amounts allow the decimals the currency uses (two for most, none for the yen, three for the Kuwaiti dinar). The tool writes numbers; it does not check cheque rules for your bank or country.
How to write a number in words
- Choose Number words, Ordinal or Amount in words and type the number.
- For an amount, pick the currency, how the cents are written and the capital letters you want.
- Read the words and choose Copy.
How numbers are turned into words
The number is split into groups of three digits from the right, and each group is written as hundreds, tens and ones followed by its scale word: thousand, million, billion, trillion and on up to decillion. Tens from twenty to ninety are joined to the ones with a hyphen (forty-two). Because numbers are held as exact whole numbers rather than floating-point values, a number with 15 or 30 digits comes out digit for digit with no rounding.
An ordinal changes only the last word: one becomes first, two second, three third, five fifth, eight eighth, nine ninth and twelve twelfth, and every other number takes th, with a y turning into ieth (twenty becomes twentieth). So 121 is one hundred twenty-first, and 1,000,000 is one millionth.
An amount in words writes the whole part with the currency name in the singular or plural form, then the minor unit: one dollar, two dollars and fifty cents, one pound and one penny, two pounds and five pence. Cheques and invoices often write the cents as a fraction instead, as in One thousand two hundred thirty-four dollars and 56/100, and often use capital letters for every word, both of which you can choose. Currencies such as the Japanese yen have no minor unit, and the Kuwaiti dinar has three decimals.
Tips
- Need Roman numerals instead? Use the Roman numeral converter.
- Working out a loan payment before you write the cheque? Try the loan calculator.
- Switch between binary, decimal and hexadecimal with the number base converter.
Questions
How large a number can it write?
Any whole number with up to 36 digits, up to nine hundred ninety-nine decillion and so on. The tool uses exact whole-number arithmetic instead of floating point, so every digit is kept: 9007199254740993 does not turn into 9007199254740992.
Does it use American or British wording?
Both. By default it writes one hundred five. Tick the British option to add the and, as in one hundred and five. Big numbers use the short scale (a billion is a thousand million), as in American and modern British English.
How are decimals written?
In number mode the digits after the point are read one by one: 3.14 is three point one four. In amount mode the cents are written as a number of cents (fifty-six cents) or as a fraction of a hundred (56/100), which is the style used on many cheques.
Which currencies are included?
US dollar, euro, pound sterling, Philippine peso, Indian rupee, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Singapore dollars, Swiss franc, yen, yuan, Mexican peso, rand, Brazilian real and Kuwaiti dinar. The minor unit is written in the right form, so one penny but two pence, and one cent but two cents.
What if I type more decimals than the currency allows?
Amounts with more decimals than the currency uses are rounded half up to the smallest unit, and the tool tells you when it did so.
Is what I type uploaded?
No. The conversion happens in your browser and nothing leaves your device.