legal tender

noun

Definition of legal tendernext
as in cash
something (as pieces of stamped metal or printed paper) customarily and legally used as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment coins and bills are considered legal tender, but postage stamps are not

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of legal tender As the world’s first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvador has positioned itself as a hub for crypto-curious travelers, with digital wallets operating alongside its low-density tourism. — Angelika Pokovba, Travel + Leisure, 26 May 2026 In that episode, shares of the troubled French colonial Mississippi Company were permitted to be used as legal tender, leading to a doubling of the French money supply. — Tobias Burns, CNBC, 15 May 2026 The mislabeling of President Andrew Jackson’s portrait is just one of the telltale signs signifying that some bills getting passed around in Greater Boston are movie props and not legal tender. — Flint McColgan, Boston Herald, 24 Apr. 2026 House Banks and Banking Committee meets to consider Senate Bill 424, which would make gold and silver legal tender in Georgia. — Adam Beam, AJC.com, 26 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for legal tender
Recent Examples of Synonyms for legal tender
  1. cash
  2. money
  3. coin
  4. currency
  5. bucks
Noun
  • If no one wins the jackpot, the cash prize will keep ticking up.
    — Fernando Cervantes Jr, USA Today, 7 July 2026
  • There’s enough cash on hand for Rhaenyra to administer the Seven Kingdoms for a fortnight, and no one remaining from the old regime — not Alicent, not Orwyle — knows where Lannister hid the rest of the ingots.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 6 July 2026
Definition of cash
Noun
  • Well, not bad in terms of trying to showcase how much money Europe is spending on its own defense, with a raft of billion-dollar deals announced with some of the world's largest military contractors.
    — Steve Sedgwick,Leonie Kidd, CNBC, 8 July 2026
  • What begins as a history play transforms into a sharp-eyed satire about the cost of assimilation in a society where money, power and white privilege remain stubbornly intertwined.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026
Definition of money
Noun
  • The other side of the coin here is those who only want to question the integrity of the country, or only want to enumerate its deals with the devil, that’s not healthy either.
    — Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone, 11 July 2026
  • My father has sued both the bank and the coin company for negligence.
    — Ari Maas, New York Daily News, 11 July 2026
Definition of coin
Noun
  • Requirements are the key element of a NASA planning document like this, the bureaucratic currency by which NASA buys off on the safety of a spacecraft, such as the amount of habitable volume the agency requires.
    — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 10 July 2026
  • Merzbacher, who generated his fortune through a fur business and currency trading, gained many of the artworks in his possession through his grandfather-in-law, Bernhard Mayer.
    — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 10 July 2026
Definition of currency
Noun
  • Beer, soda, hot dogs, pretzels, and more are all just five bucks each.
    — James McClellan, Curbed, 10 July 2026
  • The wide-open scam enriched Haitian freeloaders as Bonheur personally netted a million bucks in just two years after Joe Biden rang the dinner bell for every grifter in the Third World.
    — Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 7 July 2026
Definition of bucks

Browse Nearby Words

legally
legal tender
legate
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Cite this Entry

“Legal tender.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/legal%20tender. Accessed 12 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on legal tender

Nglish: Translation of legal tender for Spanish Speakers

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