Synonyms

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

They remain legal tender but not in circulation, as they are largely kept by private currency collectors.

From BBC ● May 28, 2026

The Abu Dhabi fund and Binance strengthened the nascent stablecoin by using it as legal tender similar to hard currency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

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

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