Crore

A crore ( /ˈkrɔər/; abbreviated cr; Hindi: करोड़, Nepali: करोड, Urdu: کروڑ) is a unit in the South Asian numbering system equal to ten million (10,000,000; 10⁷), or 100 lakhs. It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan.

The word is used in the title of the Indian version of the popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Kaun Banega Crorepati.

Usage

Money

Large amounts of money in India are often written in the form "23 cr", that is, 23,00,00,000 rupees (230,000,000 in Western notation). Although lakhs are used in Sri Lanka, most Sri Lankans do not use the term crore when referring to money, but they use the word "koatiya" (කෝටිය) to indicate 100 lakhs or ten million.

Very large amounts of money are often written or spoken in terms of "lakh crore", e.g. one lakh crore rupees (or Rs.1 lakh cr) = Rs.(1,00,000 × 1,00,00,000) = Rs. 1 trillion; 1,000,000,000,000 in Western notation = 10¹² rupees. This amount is also equal to ten kharab rupees according to the South Asian numbering system, but such terms are rare in common usage.

Other

The term is used wherever large numbers are involved: e.g. India is a country with a population of over a 100 crores. and other e.g. is "world population is over 700 crores"

Etymology and regional variants

The word "crore" is derived from the Prakrit word krodi , denoting "ten million" in the Indian numbering system, which has separate terms for all powers of ten from 10⁰ up to 10¹⁹. The crore is known by various regional names in modern languages, all derived from the Sanskrit word कोटि koṭi.

South Asian languages

See also: Languages of India and Languages of Pakistan

• Assamese: কোটি koṭi, কৌটি kouṭi
• Bengali: কোটি koṭi
• Gujarati: કરોડ karoḍ
• Hindi: करोड़ karoṛ
  • Bombay Hindi: खोका khokā (which in Marathi means a 'box'. That is the amount of money in Rs. 100 notes that can fit into a khoka.)
• Kannada: ಕೋಟಿ koṭi
• Konkani: कोटि koṭi or karoṛ
• Malayalam: കോടി koḍi (often written koti)
• Marathi: कोटि koṭi
• Oriya: କୋଟି koṭi
• Pashto: خبری korur
• Punjabi: کروڑ/ਕਰੋੜ karoṛ (often written karor)
• Sindhi: kiroṛu
• Sinhala කෝටිය koṭiya
• Tamil: கோடி koṭi (often written koṭi)
• Telugu: కోటీ koṭī
• Urdu: کروڑ karoṛ

Translation of crore into non-South Asian languages

• Arabic: الكرور عشرة ملايين al-krūr ('ashra malāyyin)
• Burmese: ကုဋေ [ɡədè] (increasingly archaic)
• Chinese: 千万 qiānwàn
• Japanese: クロー kurō (but 千万 senman is more normally used)
• Korean: 천만 cheonman
• Persian: خبری khbri
• Tagalog: karora (also called kotiha or kotiya / but often called sampung milyon)
• Thai: โกฏิ kot or kot̩i (from Pali koti, obsolete)

See also

• Lakh (= 0.01 crore)
• Indian numbering system
• Names of numbers in English
• Names of large numbers

References

• Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition s.v. crore full text of article
• Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. crore