legal tender

noun

1. currency that may be lawfully tendered in payment of a debt, such as paper money, Federal Reserve notes, or coins.

legal tender

noun

1. currency in specified denominations that a creditor must by law accept in redemption of a debt

legal tender

1. Any form of money that a government decrees must be accepted in payment of debts .

Word History and Origins

Origin of legal tender¹

First recorded in 1730–40

Example Sentences

Businesses are free to refuse commercial payment systems—but because digital RMB is legal tender, they are legally obliged to accept it.

From Time

The International Monetary Fund has also cautioned nations against accepting Bitcoin as legal tender.

From Ozy

No country has ever used bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as legal tender, and challenges abound.

From Ars Technica

The World Bank has rejected the government of El Salvador's request to help the country implement Bitcoin as legal tender, Reuters first reported late Wednesday.

From Axios

On June 8, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

From Quartz

If so, why do the rest of us have to put up with legal-tender paper money?

From The Daily Beast

It was not practicable to deny a legal-tender value to so much Mexican, and Spanish-Philippine coin in circulation.

From Project Gutenberg

I don't suppose our greenbacks would be a legal tender with them.

From Project Gutenberg

This would involve, of course, the possible inflation of legal tender currency to the amount of outstanding bonds.

From Project Gutenberg

This quality of being a legal tender was the only respect in which these notes differ from those signed by an individual.

From Project Gutenberg

Clothed with sovereignty, it had, or at least exercised, the power to make its notes a legal tender.

From Project Gutenberg