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
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Recent Examples of legal tender
Americans can continue to spend pennies at retailers, which will still accept them as legal tender.
—
Alexandra Hardle, AZCentral.com, 3 Dec. 2025
In early 2022, Nayib Bukele—the president of El Salvador who made Bitcoin legal tender in his country—photoshopped himself wearing a McDonald’s uniform after the cryptocurrency dropped.
—Carlos Garcia, Fortune, 29 Nov. 2025
Impact on Customers Though the penny will remain legal tender, everyday cash transactions may increasingly resemble McDonald’s policy, with retailers rounding to the nearest nickel when pennies are unavailable.
—Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2025
While pennies will remain legal tender, old ones will gradually be taken out of circulation.
—Nancy Forster-Holt, The Conversation, 20 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for legal tender
Alexandra Hardle, AZCentral.com, 3 Dec. 2025
In early 2022, Nayib Bukele—the president of El Salvador who made Bitcoin legal tender in his country—photoshopped himself wearing a McDonald’s uniform after the cryptocurrency dropped.
—Carlos Garcia, Fortune, 29 Nov. 2025
Impact on Customers Though the penny will remain legal tender, everyday cash transactions may increasingly resemble McDonald’s policy, with retailers rounding to the nearest nickel when pennies are unavailable.
—Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Nov. 2025
While pennies will remain legal tender, old ones will gradually be taken out of circulation.
—Nancy Forster-Holt, The Conversation, 20 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for legal tender
Recent Examples of Synonyms for legal tender
Noun
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Dave Walton, a corn, soybean, and hay farmer in Iowa and vice president of the American Soybean Association, said in March that some of his neighbors didn’t have cash on hand last fall to buy fertilizer and were struggling to budget for fertilizer due to high prices.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
13 Apr. 2026
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Building the Xcel Center and investing in a professional hockey team brought in some cash to one corner of the city but did nothing to restore the lost social and human capitals.—
Stephen B. Young,
Twin Cities,
12 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Participants don’t get their scholarship money until passing their first semester back with C’s or better.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
14 Apr. 2026
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One of the alleged victims, 95-year-old Angela Liriano, said she was left without money for food after her benefits disappeared.—
Abby Dodge,
CBS News,
14 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The unlawful taking of items from a machine or device that is operated or activated by the use of coins.—
Baltimore Sun staff,
Baltimore Sun,
17 Apr. 2026
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Now, bagel shops around the country are getting serious coin from investment funds.—
Sam Stone,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
17 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The drop in Hermes shares was even steeper, last seen down 12% as currency fluctuations weighed on the firm's sales figures.—
Joseph Wilkins,Holly Ellyatt,
CNBC,
15 Apr. 2026
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In finance, the gold standard fixes a currency’s value against a specific quantity of a specific object.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
At the time of writing, its product page has two 4K sticks from Amazon itself available discounted down to prices below this one, and the powerful 4K Max is just five bucks more.—
Abhimanyu Ghoshal,
New Atlas,
16 Apr. 2026
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Turkeys will travel through pinch points in the terrain just like rutting bucks will.—
Alex Robinson,
Outdoor Life,
16 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Legal tender.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/legal%20tender. Accessed 19 Apr. 2026.
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