Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A medium that can be exchanged for goods and services and is used as a measure of their values on the market, including among its forms a commodity such as gold, an officially issued coin or note, or a deposit in a checking account or other readily liquefiable account.
  • noun The official currency, coins, and negotiable paper notes issued by a government.
  • noun Assets and property considered in terms of monetary value; wealth.
  • noun Pecuniary profit or loss.
  • noun One's salary; pay.
  • noun An amount of cash or credit.
  • noun Sums of money, especially of a specified nature.
  • noun A wealthy person, family, or group.
  • idiom (for (one's) money) According to one's opinion, choice, or preference.
  • idiom Slang (in the money) Rich; affluent.
  • idiom Sports & Games (in the money) Taking first, second, or third place in a contest on which a bet has been placed, such as a horserace.
  • idiom (on the money) Exact; precise.
  • idiom (put money on) To place a bet on.
  • idiom (put (one's) money where (one's) mouth is) To live up to one's words; act according to one's own advice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To supply with money.
  • To convert into money; exchange for money.
  • noun Coin, or, more strictly, current coin; stamped metal that may be given in exchange for commodities; gold, silver, or other metal, stamped by public authority and used as the medium of exchange: in this sense used only collectively.
  • noun In a wider sense, any article of value which is generally accepted as a medium of exchange; also, by extension, something which, though possessing little or no intrinsic value, is recognized and accepted as a substitute for money as above defined, such as paper money; any circulating medium of exchange.
  • noun Property, in whatever form, which is readily convertible into or serves the same purposes as money as above defined; available assets; wealth: as, a man of money.
  • noun The currency of any country or nation; a denomination or designation of value, whether represented in the coinage or not: in this sense also used in the plural: as, English money; the weights and moneys of different nations; a money of account.
  • noun A way or line of investing money.
  • noun (See also earnest-money, head-money, light-money, pinmoney, ship-money.)
  • noun Synonyms and Money, Cash. Money was primarily minted metal, as copper, brass, silver, gold, but later any circulating medium that took the place of such coins: as, wampum was used as money in trade with the Indians; paper money. Cash is ready money, primarily coin, but now also anything that is accepted as money: it is opposed to credit.
  • noun See the extract.
  • noun The damages which the losing party to an action is adjudged to pay.
  • noun In an appeal bond, the amount that should be awarded against the appellant by the judgment of the court upon affirming the judgment or order appealed from.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A piece of metal, as gold, silver, copper, etc., coined, or stamped, and issued by the sovereign authority as a medium of exchange in financial transactions between citizens and with government; also, any number of such pieces; coin.
  • noun Any written or stamped promise, certificate, or order, as a government note, a bank note, a certificate of deposit, etc., which is payable in standard coined money and is lawfully current in lieu of it; in a comprehensive sense, any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying and selling.
  • noun Any article used as a medium of payment in financial transactions, such as checks drawn on checking accounts.
  • noun (Economics) Any form of wealth which affects a person's propensity to spend, such as checking accounts or time deposits in banks, credit accounts, letters of credit, etc. Various aggregates of money in different forms are given different names, such as M-1, the total sum of all currency in circulation plus all money in demand deposit accounts (checking accounts).
  • noun In general, wealth; property
  • noun (Legislation) a bill for raising revenue.
  • noun a broker who deals in different kinds of money; one who buys and sells bills of exchange; -- called also money changer.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of Cypræa (esp. Cypræa moneta) formerly much used as money by savage tribes. See Cowrie.
  • noun a denomination of value used in keeping accounts, for which there may, or may not, be an equivalent coin; e. g., the mill is a money of account in the United States, but not a coin.
  • noun a similar order issued by a bank or other financial institution.
  • noun [Eng.] a person who procures the loan of money to others.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small spider; -- so called as being popularly supposed to indicate that the person upon whom it crawls will be fortunate in money matters.
  • noun a fair or full equivalent for the money which is paid.
  • noun a single coin.
  • noun money held ready for payment, or actually paid, at the time of a transaction; cash.
  • noun credit cards, usually made out of plastic; also called plastic.
  • noun to gain or acquire money or property; to make a profit in dealings.
  • transitive verb obsolete To supply with money.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A legally or socially binding conceptual contract of entitlement to wealth, void of intrinsic value, payable for all debts and taxes, and regulated in supply.
  • noun A generally accepted means of exchange and measure of value.
  • noun A currency maintained by a state or other entity which can guarantee its value (such as a monetary union).
  • noun Hard cash in the form of banknotes and coins, as opposed to cheques/checks, credit cards, or credit more generally.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English moneie, from Old French, from Latin monēta, mint, coinage, from Monēta, epithet of Juno, temple of Juno of Rome where money was coined.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English moneie, moneye, from Old French moneie ("money"), from Latin monēta, from the name of the temple of Juno Moneta in Rome, where a mint was. Displaced native Middle English schat ("money, treasure") (from Old English sceatt ("money, treasure, coin")), Middle English feoh ("money, property") (from Old English feoh ("money, property, cattle")).

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Examples

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  • "Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps you in touch with your children." J Paul Getty.

    February 10, 2007

  • "What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money." Henny Youngman.

    February 10, 2007

  • "Show Me the Money by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, Nov. 9, 2008.

    November 11, 2008

  • An awkward contingency of history. (Inspired by CMOS 16, 14.98)

    February 12, 2011