1
: an old French monetary unit equal to 20 sols
2
: a coin representing one livre
3
: the pound of Lebanon and Sudan

Examples of livre in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The five hundred livres that Charles V eventually coughed up aside, this extraordinary venture was made possible by Ferdinand’s own fortune, which is to say by the New World holdings granted to his father, which is to say by colonial crimes of the first order—theft, slavery, genocide. Susan Tallman, The New York Review of Books, 30 Nov. 2023 Unfortunately, the annual bill for annuities and wages of lifetime offices came to ninety million livres. John Lanchester, The New Yorker, 29 July 2019 By 1715, the King had a hundred and sixty-five million livres in revenue from taxes and customs. John Lanchester, The New Yorker, 29 July 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'livre.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

French, from Old French, from Latin libra, a unit of weight

First Known Use

1588, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of livre was in 1588

Dictionary Entries Near livre

Cite this Entry

“Livre.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/livre. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!