bill of exchange

American  

noun

1. a written authorization or order to pay a specified sum of money to a specified person.

---

bill of exchange British  

noun

1. (now chiefly in foreign transactions) a document, usually negotiable, containing an instruction to a third party to pay a stated sum of money at a designated future date or on demand

---

Etymology

Origin of bill of exchange

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

A Dunlap broadside, along with a Yiddish-language letter and a bill of exchange, was sent overseas by the Jewish merchant Jonas Phillips to a relative in Amsterdam.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 16, 2025

Richard Smith, freshly arrived from England, comes bearing a formidable bill of exchange, requiring that the town bank hand over the fabulous amount of one thousand pounds sterling.

From Slate • Dec. 13, 2017

Italian merchants of the 14th century, for example, rather than the bureaucrats of China, devised the essential principles of accounting like double-entry bookkeeping and such financial devices as the bill of exchange and limited liability.

From Time Magazine Archive

A "forcible bill of exchange" for all credit sales, costing up to $200 on a transaction involving $50,000, would yield another $1,000,000, and a 5% tax on capital leaving the island $1,100,000 more.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is a kind of a bill of exchange, or order payable at the will of the bearer.

From Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, On the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890 by Jones, John P. (John Percival)