dollar
Americannoun
-
dollars
plural
-
a paper money, silver or cupronickel coin, and monetary unit of the United States, equal to 100 cents. $
-
a silver or nickel coin and monetary unit of Canada, equal to 100 cents. $
-
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.
-
Also called ringgit. a cupronickel coin and monetary unit of Brunei, equal to 100 sen.
-
a thaler.
-
a peso.
-
yuan.
-
British Slang. (formerly)
-
five-shilling piece; crown.
-
the sum of five shillings.
-
noun
-
the standard monetary unit of the US and its dependencies, divided into 100 cents
-
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
-
informal (formerly) five shillings or a coin of this value
-
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 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
The dollar is at 158.16 yen versus Y157.92 around Thursday’s Tokyo market close.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The dollar fell against a basket of global currencies, while bitcoin partially reversed Thursday’s losses to add 0.2%, trading around $82,200.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
It was only a dollar and fifteen cents.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
“Once the studio gets involved, they start thinking about dollars, which they got to make money, but they prioritize the dollars,” Rodriguez says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 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
MS maintains its target price of 3,088 New Taiwan dollars on TSMC.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
But Elisha’s naval income was only around sixty dollars a month.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
