Lakh

A lakh or lac (English pronunciation: /ˈlæk/ or /ˈlɑːk/) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; 10⁵). It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan, and is often used in Indian English.

In English the word is used both as an attributive and non-attributive noun, and with either a marked ("-s") or unmarked plural: "1 lakh people" or "1 lakh of people", "5 lakh rupees", "5 lakh of rupees", "5 lakhs rupees", "5 lakhs of rupees" are all to be found.

The Indian numbering system also uses separators differently from the Western system — after the first three digits, a comma divides every two rather than every three digits, thus:

This accords with the Indian naming system, which has units for thousand, hundred thousand, ten million, etc.

Etymology and regional variants

The root of the word lakh is Sanskrit लक्ष lakṣá, meaning "one hundred thousand".^[1]

South Asian languages

• Assamese: লাখ lākh
• Bengali: লাখ lakh or লক্ষ lokkho
• Dhivehi: ލައްކަ lakka
• Gujarati: લાખ lākh
• Hindi: लाख lākh
• Kannada: ಲಕ್ಷ lakṣa
• Malayalam: ലക്ഷം lakṣhum
• Marathi: लाख lākh or लक्ष lakṣa
• Nepali: लाख lākh
• Oriya: lakhya
• Punjabi: ਲੱਖ lakh
• Sinhalese: laksha
• Tamil : இலட்சம் laṭcham
• Telugu: లక్ష lakṣa
• Urdu: لاکھ lākh

Other languages

• Japanese: 洛叉 rakusha
• Mandarin: 洛叉 luòchā
• Pashto: لک lak
• Swahili: laki or lakhi

See also

• Crore (= 100 lakh)
• Myriad
• Names of large numbers
• Names of numbers in English

References

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