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• treasury
  treasury

  noun

  a place where the funds of the government, of a corporation, or the like are deposited, kept, and disbursed.
• Treasury
  Treasury

  noun

  (in various countries) the government department in charge of finance. In Britain the Treasury is also responsible for economic strategy

treasury

American  

[trezh-uh-ree] / ˈtrɛʒ ə ri /

noun

• treasuries
  plural

1. a place where the funds of the government, of a corporation, or the like are deposited, kept, and disbursed.

2. funds or revenue of a government, public or private corporation, etc.

3. (initial capital letter) the department of government that has control over the collection, management, and disbursement of the public revenue.

4. a building, room, chest, or other place for the preservation of treasure or valuable objects.

5. a collection or supply of excellent or highly prized writings, works of art, etc..

   a treasury of American poetry.

6. Informal. Treasuries, Treasury bills, bonds, and notes.

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treasury ¹ British  

/ ˈtrɛʒərɪ /

noun

1. a storage place for treasure

2. the revenues or funds of a government, private organization, or individual

3. a place where funds are kept and disbursed

4. Also: treasure house. a collection or source of valuable items

   a treasury of information

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Treasury ² British  

/ ˈtrɛʒərɪ /

noun

1. (in various countries) the government department in charge of finance. In Britain the Treasury is also responsible for economic strategy

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• treasuries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of treasury

1250–1300; Middle English tresorie < Old French. See treasure, -y ³

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Explanation

A treasury is a kind of bank — it's a place where money and other valuable things are kept, or where a country keeps its wealth. You might guess that a treasury is a place to keep your treasure, and you'd be right. Originally, the word literally meant "room for treasure," from the Old French tresor, "hoard or treasure." Starting in the late 1300s, it also meant "department that controls public revenue," which remains the most common use of treasury today. The U.S. even has an official Department of the Treasury, the part of the executive branch that prints money and collects taxes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

treasury Treasury treasuries

The CDS market has become particularly vital for finance teams since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, treasury experts said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026

Binance said it replaced customers' assets using a combination of channels that include its corporate treasury and its futures insurance and emergency reserve funds.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

The treasury secretary also highlighted reasons why any restructuring of the mortgage giants isn’t imminent, and the market may have overreacted to his comments.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

Meanwhile, pressure on U.S. 10-year treasury yields was slightly easing Thursday, which Jefferies equities trading analyst Jeffrey Favuzza said was likely “a function around the sentiment in AI.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026

It was another circular structure wrought in glowing white stone, but the treasury had no windows, no whimsical decoration or dragon’s scales.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

Treasury yields were little moved ahead of U.S. consumer-price inflation data due later in the day.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026

Treasury yields rose ahead of inflation data from the Labor Department.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026

Treasury yields rose after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he would support raising interest rates by 25 basis points in December.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026

Treasury yields rose for the day but ended the week lower as markets adjusted to a new political landscape while U.S. indicators remained robust.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026

The Fed and the Treasury were doing their best to calm investors, but on Wednesday no one was obviously calm.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

The mining differentiates American Bitcoin from other so-called digital asset treasuries, or DATs, Roth argued.

From Barron's ● Dec. 10, 2025

What we’re seeing now is like a silent IPO: early, oversized holders distributing to a much broader base of buyers who came in through ETFs, brokerages and corporate treasuries.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 17, 2025

Skeptics have been anticipating the pullback, given that crypto treasuries often trade at a premium to the underlying value of the tokens they hold.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025

The activity implied that treasuries may have lost their glow, or that the stock market collapse had produced untenable losses among Wall Street traders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025

The authorities both local and national had to spend every penny in their treasuries and every second of time in the sole task of dealing with the chaos.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

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Related Words

• bank
• coffer
• exchequer

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