What does crore mean?
Crore is a unit of number used throughout South Asia, equivalent to ten million (10,000,000) in Western notation. It belongs to the traditional Indian numbering system, in which numbers are grouped by lakhs (hundred thousands) and crores rather than by thousands and millions: one crore equals one hundred lakhs. The word is ubiquitous in the financial and political language of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, where budgets, property prices, box-office takings, and census figures are all quoted in crores — a phrase like 'a 200-crore project' is entirely ordinary in an Indian newspaper. For readers outside the region, it functions chiefly as a conversion term, since international coverage of South Asian economies must translate crore into millions to be widely understood. Borrowed from Hindi and ultimately from Sanskrit during the colonial era, crore has been part of English since the seventeenth century and remains an essential term for anyone following business, sport, or public affairs on the subcontinent.
nounA unit in the Indian numbering system equal to ten million (10,000,000). In South Asia it is the standard large-number term, typically used for money, population figures, and statistics.
- A quantity of ten million, used especially of money or population in South Asian numbering.
"The film grossed over 200 crore rupees worldwide within its first week."
"The government allocated 5,000 crore to the new highway project."
"The city's population has now crossed two crore."
'Crore' is used for exact amounts ('ten crore'); 'crores' is common when referring to unspecified or very large sums, as in 'costing crores of rupees'.
"The scam involved crores of rupees siphoned off over a decade."
India counts its money in crores, not millions — one crore is ten million, and a single Bollywood hit can earn hundreds of them.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crore
Crore entered English in the early seventeenth century through trade contact with the Mughal Empire, borrowed from Hindi 'karod'. The Hindi word traces back through Prakrit to Sanskrit 'kroṭi', meaning ten million, making it a genuine cognate of the related term lakh in the same numbering system. It has remained stable in form and value ever since, and continues in daily use across South Asia.
Related word forms
How crore is actually used
Crore is standard currency of expression in Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, and Sri Lankan English and appears routinely in their press and official statistics. Outside South Asia it survives mainly in business journalism covering those economies. It is written both as 'crore' (singular) and 'crores' when speaking of indefinite multiples, and figures are often given with the currency named, as in 'rupees 10 crore'.
Easily confused with crore
A lakh is one hundred thousand, while a crore is ten million — one crore equals one hundred lakhs.
A crore is ten million; South Asian media often converts between the two systems, so a '50 crore' project equals 500 million.