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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
Shahar Ziv, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2025
Naperville has received millions of dollars in grant money from EPA to improve our wastewater treatment plant and to improve our infrastructure for water supply.
—Naperville Sun, Chicago Tribune, 7 Mar. 2025
San Jose spends tens of millions of dollars each year responding to fires in encampments, moving people from one street to another, removing illegally dumped garbage from our waterways, picking up human waste and used needles in public spaces, and much more.
—Matt Mahan, The Mercury News, 7 Mar. 2025
Proponents say the selling of fireworks helps community groups in these cities raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
—Jonathan Horwitz, Orange County Register, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dollar
Cite this Entry
“Dollar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dollar. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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)"
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