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In the mountains of Bohemia is the small town of Jáchymov. In the early 16th century, the town was known by its German name, Sankt Joachimstal. At that time, a silver mine was opened nearby, and coins were minted to which the name joachimstaler was applied. In German this was shortened to Taler. Shortly afterward the Dutch or Low German form daler was borrowed into English to refer to the Taler and other coins that were patterned after it, such as the Spanish peso, which circulated widely in Britain’s North American colonies. Our modern word dollar is a different spelling of this daler. When the newly independent American colonies settled on an official monetary unit in 1785, they chose the name dollar.
Examples of dollar in a Sentence
Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 25 May 2026
Radiant Industries is building a mass-production factory for portable microreactors in Oak Ridge as well, drawn by Tennessee’s skilled nuclear workforce and a state fund that has already disbursed tens of millions of dollars toward advanced nuclear development.
—Iulia Lupse, Sun Sentinel, 24 May 2026
Personal Injury Attorney John Morgan also stepped away after from the Dreamers following the Rays’ sale, after promising hundreds of millions of dollars to the baseball effort in Orlando.
—Ryan Gillespie, The Orlando Sentinel, 24 May 2026
The specific dollar amount that Iran would receive as part of the deal have yet to be negotiated, the official said.
—Kevin Liptak, CNN Money, 24 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for dollar
Cite this Entry
“Dollar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dollar. Accessed 26 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
dollar
noun
from Dutch daler "silver coin formerly used in Germany," from German Taler (same meaning), shortened from Joachimstaler "a coin made in Sankt Joachimsthal (Saint Joachim's Valley) in Bohemia (a former kingdom in Europe)"
