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:
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to keep a fixed dollar peg.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
But the dollar still has at least one thing going for it: a lack of viable alternatives.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Later that month, ICE awarded multimillion dollar no-bid contracts to two companies tasked with taking over claims processing: Acentra Health for healthcare services and Ardent Group for pharmacy services.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Under the GEO Group business model, detainees maintain the private jail for a dollar a day.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
It’s a sea of old cars with big dollar signs and numbers written on their windshields in hot-pink marker.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Some estimates made by Doge, the body charged with reducing US government spending, that it saved billions of dollars are "incorrect or lack supporting evidence", a watchdog has found.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
In 2023, when Adelkoff took home nearly a million dollars in total compensation, revenue had dropped to $13 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Shares in Sandfire are up 2.4% at 21.14 Australian dollars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
The artificial-intelligence spending spree shows no sign of letting up as Alphabet prepares to raise tens of billions of dollars through an investment-grade bond offering.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Each additional sibling costs five dollars per hour.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
