Try Our Apps


Pour or Pore?


[dol-er] /ˈdɒl ər/
a paper money, silver or cupronickel coin, and monetary unit of the United States, equal to 100 cents. Symbol: $.
a silver or nickel coin and monetary unit of Canada, equal to 100 cents. Symbol: $.
any of the monetary units of various other nations, as Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, 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 (def 1).
British Slang.
  1. five-shilling piece; crown.
  2. the sum of five shillings.
Origin of dollar
1545-55; earlier daler < Low German, Dutch daler; cognate with German Taler, short for Joachimsthaler coin minted in Joachimsthal in Bohemia Unabridged
Cite This Source
Examples from the Web for dollar
Contemporary Examples
Historical Examples

  • When her dollar gloves were shabby and would not button at the wrist?

    The Man from the Bitter Roots Caroline Lockhart
  • He had put in six hundred dollars when every dollar was a ducat.

    The Spirit of Sweetwater Hamlin Garland
  • This firm is sound as a dollar and it's going to stay sound as long as I'm at the helm.

    The Root of Evil Thomas Dixon
  • I have not got any ten cents,” said Phonny—“only a quarter of a dollar.

    Stuyvesant Jacob Abbott
British Dictionary definitions for dollar


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
(Brit, informal) (formerly) five shillings or a coin of this value
(informal) look or feel (like) a million dollars, to look or feel extremely well
Word Origin
C16: from Low German daler, from German Taler, Thaler, short for Joachimsthaler coin made from metal mined in Joachimsthal Jachymov, town now in the Czech Republic
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
Cite This Source
Word Origin and History for dollar

1550s, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Joachimstal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale.

The thaler was a large silver coin of varying value in the German states (and a unit of the German monetary union of 1857-73 equal to three marks); it also served as a currency unit in Denmark and Sweden. English colonists in America used the word in reference to Spanish pieces of eight. Continental Congress July 6, 1785, adopted dollar when it set up U.S. currency, on suggestion of Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Jefferson, because the term was widely known but not British. But none were circulated until 1794.

When William M. Evarts was Secretary of State he accompanied Lord Coleridge on an excursion to Mount Vernon. Coleridge remarked that he had heard it said that Washington, standing on the lawn, could throw a dollar clear across the Potomac. Mr. Evarts explained that a dollar would go further in those days than now. [Walsh]
The dollar sign ($) is said to derive from the image of the Pillars of Hercules, stamped with a scroll, on the Spanish piece of eight. Phrase dollars to doughnuts attested from 1890; dollar diplomacy is from 1910.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Slang definitions & phrases for dollar
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Cite This Source
dollar in Technology

"$" Common names: ITU-T: dollar sign. Rare: currency symbol; buck; cash; string; escape (when used as the echo of ASCII ESC); ding; cache; INTERCAL: big money.
Well-known uses of the dollar symbol in computing include as a prefix on the names of string variables in BASIC, shell and related languages like Perl. In shell languages it is also used in positional parameters so "$1" is the first parameter to a shell script, "$2" the second, etc.

Cite This Source
Idioms and Phrases with dollar


In addition to the idiom beginning with
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Cite This Source

Word of the Day

Difficulty index for dollar

Most English speakers likely know this word

Word Value for dollar

Scrabble Words With Friends

Nearby words for dollar