Number to words converter
Type a number or an amount, get it in words.
How do I write 1,234 in words?
One thousand two hundred thirty-four. American usage leaves out "and" inside whole numbers; "and" marks the decimal point.
How do I write a check amount in words?
Write the dollars in words and the cents as a fraction of 100: $1,234.56 is "One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100 dollars." Draw a line after it to the end of the space.
Where do hyphens go?
In the numbers twenty-one to ninety-nine: forty-five, ninety-nine. Not after hundred or thousand.
How do I write a million or a billion?
1,000,000 is one million and 1,000,000,000 one billion in American usage. The converter handles numbers up to 999 trillion.
What about cents under a dollar?
Write "Zero and 50/100 dollars" for $0.50, so the amount cannot be altered.
How do I write 2,005 or 100,250 in words?
Skip the groups that are zero: 2,005 is "two thousand five" and 100,250 is "one hundred thousand two hundred fifty". Say the number inside each group of three digits as if it were alone, then add the group name (thousand, million, billion, trillion).
Is it "forty" or "fourty"?
Forty. It is the one tens word that drops the u from four: forty, forty-four, but fourteen, fourth and fourteenth keep it. The other tens are twenty, thirty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety.
Why do the words matter more than the numerals on a check?
If they disagree, the written words control. The Uniform Commercial Code, section 3-114, says that words prevail over numbers in a contradictory instrument, which is why the amount in words is the line to get right when the digits are unclear.
How a number is spelled out
Split the number into groups of three digits from the right. Each group is read as hundreds, tens and ones, and followed by its name, except for the last group. So 3,405,067,890,123 becomes "three trillion four hundred five billion sixty-seven million eight hundred ninety thousand one hundred twenty-three". Numbers from 21 to 99 that are not multiples of ten are hyphenated, as in twenty-one or ninety-nine, and the hyphen also appears inside larger numbers that contain them. Hundreds and thousands are not hyphenated, and in American usage "and" is not added inside a whole number: one hundred one, not "one hundred and one". The converter uses the short scale, in which a billion is a thousand millions and a trillion a thousand billions.
Worked example: a check for $1,234.56 and others
A check for $1,234.56 is written "One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100 dollars": the dollars in words, the word "and", then the cents as a fraction of 100. The same pattern gives "Fifteen and 00/100 dollars" for $15 and "One million and 00/100 dollars" for $1,000,000. When the amount is under a dollar the dollars are written as zero: "Zero and 50/100 dollars". Draw a line from the end of the words to the edge of the box so nothing can be added. The check function is limited to amounts below 10 trillion dollars, and the plain converter to numbers below one quadrillion.
Common mistakes
The most frequent slip is adding "and" in the middle of a whole number, which in American writing is reserved for the decimal point or, on a check, for the cents. The second is writing the cents as a number in words ("fifty-six cents") instead of 56/100. Finally, if you are following a house style guide, check whether numbers above nine or one hundred are spelled out in running text: the converter spells out any number, but style guides differ on when to do so.
Sources: the hyphenation of compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine follows standard style-guide practice (for example the Government of Canada's Writing Tips Plus); Uniform Commercial Code, section 3-114, on contradictory terms of an instrument. Related: Roman numeral converter, base converter, binary converter.