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:
Gold prices hit a two-week high, aided by a softer dollar and easing Treasury yields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
On the campaign trail, Raman has promised to let Mejia audit every dollar of city spending on homelessness, setting the stage for a potential overhaul of L.A.’s approach to the crisis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
That also weighed on the dollar, which held losses against its peers in Asian trade.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Jaramillo has to “crunch each and every dollar, each and every paycheck, each and every month,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026
“You just wait and see. By tomorrow night, I’ll have a sack full of them; and one of them will be that hundred dollar monkey. He’s the jasper I’ll be looking for.”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
They have attracted $8 billion in capital investments and tens of millions of community benefit dollars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
“L.A. has been flying blind when it comes to measuring the impacts of the dollars spent,” said Cole, a Pasadena City Council member.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
The decision to spare death row inmates is largely symbolic in a state that has not executed a prisoner since 2006, though experts say it could save millions of dollars in court costs each year.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
As a result, interest in the humanoid opportunity, and robotics more broadly, has been growing, with billions of dollars invested in companies working on such robots.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
I dig three dollars from my backpack and hand them to him, praying he doesn’t notice the slight sheen of sweat on the bills.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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