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". 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

Translation

The word "Lakh" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Romani, Swedish.

Translation(s) in other languages: Bengali: লাখ, Persian: لک (عدد), Gujarati: લાખ, Hindi: लाख, Swahili: Lakhi, Marathi: लक्ष, Western Panjabi: لکھ, Russian: Легион (число), Tamil: இலட்சம், Chinese: 拉克.