legal tender

American

noun

currency that may be lawfully tendered in payment of a debt, such as paper money, Federal Reserve notes, or coins.

legal tender British

noun

currency in specified denominations that a creditor must by law accept in redemption of a debt

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

legal tender Cultural

Any form of money that a government decrees must be accepted in payment of debts.

Etymology

Origin of legal tender

First recorded in 1730–40

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:

legal tender

Yes, Gulf statelets like Aden were overseen by the Bombay presidency, and yes, the India rupee was, for the most part, their legal tender.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026

Last year, the country welcomed a record 3.9 million tourists, including cryptocurrency evangelists drawn by Bukele’s short-lived experiment in making Bitcoin legal tender.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2025

In 2021 he made Bitcoin legal tender nationwide, and though the experiment has largely been a failure, it has attracted crypto bros and tech opportunists.

From Slate ● Mar. 25, 2025

Suddenly I realized — a shock to the system! — you needed legal tender in order to live.

From Salon ● Mar. 11, 2025

These categories imply that we find Everest to be covered in snow; we make today Thursday; and the bank decrees that this is legal tender.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023