ledger

noun

led·​ger ˈle-jər 

plural ledgers

1

a

: a book containing accounts to which debits and credits are posted from books of original entry

Psmith, perched gracefully on a stool, entered figures in a ledger.

—P. G. Wodehouse

b

: a digital record that is used similarly to an accounting ledger (as for maintaining a list of transactions)

Williams said he also recovered a ledger spreadsheet on a laptop computer seized from Wright and a "key" to translate the ledger.

—Scott Dolan

specifically : blockchain

NFTs use blockchain, the technology ledger backing cryptocurrencies …, which are databases of linked information to record ownership or transactions of a product.

—Weston Blasi

The original idea behind Provenance was to provide transparency, proof of loan performance, provenance—reliable information about who owned or owns an asset at any given time—lower costs and easier audits for loan buyers and sellers through distributed ledger technology.

—Penny Crosman

2

: a horizontal board used for vertical support (as in scaffolding)

I'd rather see joists resting on a ledger, spiked to the girders or to the house through spacers.

—Jim Locke

Examples of ledger in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The blockchain works like a ledger in which every bitcoin transaction is stored in what is called a block. —Bruce Gil, Quartz, 3 Mar. 2024

Ensuring Ethical Sourcing Of Diamonds Any humanitarian purpose that needs an immutable ledger of activity will benefit from blockchain technology. —Expert Panel®, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024

The earliest climate models, for example, were essentially ledgers of data run through equations based on fundamental physics, including Newton’s laws of motion. —Dan Rockmore, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2024

Bitcoin operates on what is known as a blockchain, essentially a public ledger, which contains the history of every transaction. —Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, 2 Jan. 2024

Much of it, indeed, comes down on the progressive side of the ledger: goddesses and matriarchies, relatively peaceful tribes that existed before the invention of war, preagricultural egalitarianism. —William Deresiewicz, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2024

One minus on the digitization ledger came on Nov. 8, 2016, when at 8 p.m. —Alex Travelli, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2024

Consider a world where all salary data, sensitive business information, and legal contract details were on a public ledger. —Alex Pruden, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024

Logged on an open ledger for all to see, crypto transactions were not remotely anonymous. —Joel Khalili, WIRED, 27 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English lygger, leger large breviary, beam, probably from leyen, leggen to lay

First Known Use

1588, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing ledger

• ledger line

Kids Definition

ledger

noun

led·​ger ˈlej-ər 

: a book in which accounts are kept in final form