giga- [GIG uh or JIG uh] , gig-

(Greek: "giant"; a decimal prefix used in the international metric system for measurements)

Used in the extended sense of billion [U.S.] or thousand million fold [U.K.] in the metric [decimal] system: 109 [1 000 000 000]. The metric symbol is G.
gigabit
gigabyte
gigacycle
gigaelectronvolt, gigaelectron volt, gigaelectron-volt; GeV
A unit of energy, used primarily in high-energy physics of one thousand million or one billion electron volts.
gigaflop
A billion calculations per second.
gigahertz
gigajoules
gigameters (British: gigametres)
gigapascal
gigasecond (Gs)
1. Human life expectancy about one century is equal to about three Gs.
2. One light-second (distance light travels in one second) about 0.3 Gm.
gigavolt
One billion volts.
gigawatt
gigohm

Related "metric" families: yotta; zetta; exa; peta; tera; mega; kilo; hecto; deka; deci; centi; milli; micro; nano; pico; femto; atto; zepto; yocto.