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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
Mat Issa, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025
Stablecoins aim to reduce those risks by pegging their value to a less volatile financial asset, most commonly the U.S. dollar.
—Alain Sherter, CBS News, 15 July 2025
At the same time, Trump has ordered billions of dollars in federal research grants to be cut, which would gut research on cancer, HIV, sickle cell disease, and more.
—Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 15 July 2025
The federal legislation seeks to regulate the creation and use of stablecoins — digital currencies designed to maintain a stable value by being tied to assets like the U.S. dollar.
—Alexis Simmerman, Austin American Statesman, 14 July 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 21 Jul. 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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