dollar
Americannoun
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dollars
plural
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a paper money, silver or cupronickel coin, and monetary unit of the United States, equal to 100 cents. $
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a silver or nickel coin and monetary unit of Canada, equal to 100 cents. $
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any of the monetary units of various other nations, as Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, East Timor, Fiji, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Liberia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe, equal to 100 cents.
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Also called ringgit. a cupronickel coin and monetary unit of Brunei, equal to 100 sen.
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a thaler.
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a peso.
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yuan.
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British Slang. (formerly)
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five-shilling piece; crown.
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the sum of five shillings.
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noun
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the standard monetary unit of the US and its dependencies, divided into 100 cents
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the standard monetary unit, comprising 100 cents, of the following countries or territories: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kiribati, Liberia, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, and Zimbabwe
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informal (formerly) five shillings or a coin of this value
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informal to look or feel extremely well
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dollar
First recorded in 1545–55; earlier daler, from Low German, Dutch daler; cognate with German Taler, short for Joachimsthaler, a silver coin minted in Joachimsthal ( Czech Jáchymov ) in Bohemia
Explanation
Kaching! A dollar is a unit of currency or money. The United States, Canada, and Australia all use the dollar. The symbol for a dollar is $. If you say someone worships the all mighty dollar, that means they’re greedy. A dollar bill is the equivalent of 100 cents. There are also coins with the value of a dollar, although these are used less often in the US than in other countries. Sometimes dollar is shorthand for money, like when the Wu-Tang Clan raps, “Cash rules everything around me, dollar dollar bill y’all.” The word dollar comes from the German thaler, an early unit of German currency.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Wind-whipped flames scorched multi-million dollar homes south of Los Angeles on Friday as a wildfire quickly ravaged hundreds of acres.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
The U.S. dollar is 0.1% higher at 1.2825 Singapore dollars, FactSet data show.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The rupiah dropped about 0.8 percent against the dollar to sit at around around 18,060, having hit 18,209 in June, its weakest level on record.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Sharon Zollner, chief economist at ANZ, said a weaker New Zealand dollar and higher oil prices since September have materially changed the interest-rate outlook.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
“They don’t seem to have any sense at all. I believe I could catch every one of them. It’s that hundred dollar monkey that I’m having trouble with.”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Musk did not announce a price for the vehicle, but it is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
"In the last one year, we've invested $8 billion already. We have another couple of billion dollars in the pipeline," he added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
In 2020, Liu and his team made billions of dollars in gains for Vitol betting that the impact of the pandemic on the oil market would be short-lived, people familiar with the matter said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
It would have cost Mom over a thousand dollars to fly there, and that’s if she flew coach—something she hates.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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