Lakh

A lakh (/læk, lɑːk/; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For example, in India, 150,000 rupees becomes 1.5 lakh rupees, written as ₹1,50,000 or INR 1,50,000.

It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is often used in Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan English.

Usage

In Indian English, the word is used both as an attributive and non-attributive noun with either an unmarked or marked ("-s") plural, respectively. For example: "1 lakh people"; "lakhs of people"; "20 lakh rupees"; "lakhs of rupees". In the abbreviated form, usage such as "₹5L" or "₹5 lac" (for "5 lakh rupees") is common. In this system of numeration, 100 lakh is called one crore and is equal to 10 million.

Formal written publications in English in India tend to use lakh and crore for Indian currency and Western numbering for foreign currencies, such as dollars and pounds.

Silver market

The term is also used in the pricing of silver on the international precious metals market, where one lakh equals 100,000 troy ounces (3,110 kilograms) of silver.

Etymology and regional variants

The modern word lakh derives from Sanskrit: लक्ष, romanized: lakṣa, originally denoting "mark, target, stake in gambling", but also used as the numeral for "100,000" in Gupta-era Classical Sanskrit (Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Harivaṃśa). The cognate Pali word lakkha has the same range of senses, including "100,000".

Outside South Asia, the Sanskrit word was borrowed into several languages. In some of these, it came to denote a smaller number: in Malay, Indonesian, and a number of Philippine languages, laksa means 10,000 rather than 100,000.

By language

South Asia

Outside South Asia

The terms below are borrowings or translations of Sanskrit lakṣa.

  • Central Subanen: laksa', traditionally "innumerable" but now used for 10,000
  • Chinese: 洛叉 (luòchā), a transcription of lakṣa used in Buddhist texts
  • Indonesian: laksa, denoting 10,000 rather than 100,000 (100,000 is keti, equal to ten laksa, from the cognate koṭi)
  • Japanese: 洛叉 (rakusha), also 落沙
  • Malay: laksa (لقسا), denoting 10,000 rather than 100,000
  • Tagalog: laksâ, denoting 10,000 rather than 100,000
  • Tibetan: འབུམ ('bum), the traditional Tibetan word for 100,000 used to translate Sanskrit lakṣa

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rowlett, Russ (15 December 2008) [1998]. "lakh". How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "lakh". Oxford English Dictionary (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. 1933.
  3. 1 2 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lakh" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 94.
  4. ↑ Posamentier, Alfred S.; Poole, Peter (23 March 2020). Understanding Mathematics Through Problem Solving. World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4663-69-4.
  5. ↑ Shapiro, Richard (16 August 2012). "The most distinctive counting system in English? Indian cardinal numbers". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 24 May 2020. – Shapiro is/was an OED employee. The article states: "The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press."
  6. ↑ Gilkes, Paul (3 July 2017). "CME Group/Thomson Reuters step down from executing the London silver fix". Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  7. ↑ "Units of Measure". perthmint.com.au. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley (1985). "lakṣá10881". "lakṣhá 10881" in: A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. London: Oxford University Press, 1962-1966. Includes three supplements, published 1969–1985. Digital South Asia Library, a project of the Center for Research Libraries and the University of Chicago. p. 629. Retrieved 22 August 2010. lakṣh masculine "stake, prize" R̥igved, "mark, sign" Mahābhārat, "100,000" Yājñavalkya, "aim" Kālidās{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  9. 1 2 Rhys Davids, T. W.; Stede, William (1921–1925). "lakkha". The Pali Text Society's Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  10. 1 2 "laksa". Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (in Indonesian). Agency for Language Development and Cultivation, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  11. 1 2 "laksa". Kamus Dewan (in Malay) (4th ed.). Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Retrieved 8 October 2026 – via Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu.
  12. 1 2 "laksa'". Central Subanen Lexicon. SIL Philippines. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Soothill, William Edward; Hodous, Lewis (1937). A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner. p. 308.
  14. 1 2 "洛叉 luòchā". Humanistic Buddhism Reader. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  15. ↑ "keti". Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (in Indonesian). Agency for Language Development and Cultivation, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  16. ↑ "洛叉". Kumi Dictionary (based on JMdict). Retrieved 8 October 2026.
  17. ↑ "10000 in Tagalog". Tagalog.com Dictionary. Retrieved 8 October 2026.