money
- 1The funds that a person, family, or organization has available, such as cash and bank deposits.
After the lawsuit, the company's money was nearly gone, though it still owned valuable buildings and equipment.
She tracks her money in a budgeting app that links to her checking account.
UsageTakes a singular verb, the money is gone, and goes with much: how much money (not
incorrect: how many money). - 2Coins, banknotes, and other accepted means of payment, including the currency a state issues.
For centuries, silver coins circulated as money across the Mediterranean world.
Once a community adopts money, complicated barter arrangements become unnecessary.
UsageMonies and moneys are mainly used in legal or financial writing for separate sums or currencies, as in public monies.
Similarcurrency
- 3Physical cash (banknotes and coins) as distinct from checks, credit cards, or other forms of credit.
I rarely carry money these days; everything goes on my phone or a card.
He handed the babysitter her money in tens and twenties rather than writing a check.
Similarcash
Less common meanings
- 4A wealthy person or family, or the rich considered as a social class.
Old money looks down on the flashy new mansions across the lake.
He didn't love her, the gossips said. He married money.
UsageMostly in set phrases: marry money, come from money, old money. Born into money means born into a rich family.
Note
This use names wealth by the people who hold it, a rich family or the rich as a class, and it turns up in set phrases such as old money and marry money. Megan Nolan uses the idiom in 2023 when she writes that neither of her working-class parents came from money.
- 5Excellent, impressive, or effortlessly cool.
That taco place downtown is money: best food in the neighborhood.
His jump shot was money all night, dropping in from everywhere on the court.
UsageMostly used after a verb, often with intensifiers: is money, so money.
Similargreat, excellent, awesome
Note
American slang turns the noun into praise. It usually follows the verb and takes intensifiers, as in Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King's Faithful (2004), where a pitcher is "so money he doesn't know he's money."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Faithful was co-written by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King. en.wikipedia.org
- Faithful was first published in 2004. openlibrary.org
- The quotation describes Schilling using the exact words given. en.wiktionary.org
- Schilling, the quotation's subject, was a pitcher. en.wikipedia.org
- 6A person who provides the funding for an operation or venture.
The director handles the creative side; his partner is the money.
Investors stayed quiet on set, but everyone knew who the money was.
UsageMostly with the: his partner is the money, everyone knew who the money was.
- 7Wealth taken all together and measured by its value, counting property and investments, not just cash.
Much of the senator's money is tied up in land and stocks, so he has surprisingly little cash on hand.
The town's oldest families have had money for generations, and it shows in their land and their portfolios.
UsageHave money means being wealthy overall, even with little cash to spend.
Note
Here money means what someone is worth rather than what they can spend this week, so a family can have money in this sense and still be short of cash in the bank.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A family can possess substantial wealth while having little cash in bank accounts. collaborate.princeton.edu
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Latin monēta ("money, mint, coin") took its name from a temple in Rome dedicated to Juno Moneta, which had a mint attached to it. The word was borrowed into Middle English as moneye by way of Anglo-Norman muneie. "Mint" and "manat" come from the same Latin word along other paths, making them doublets.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Latin monēta meant money, mint, or coin. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin word came from the name of a temple in Rome dedicated to Juno Moneta. en.wiktionary.org
- The Capitoline Museums locate the mint near the temple, rather than inside the temple building. museicapitolini.org
- The word entered Middle English as moneye through Anglo-Norman muneie. en.wiktionary.org
- Mint derives from Latin monēta through a different route and is a doublet of money. en.wiktionary.org
- Manat also derives from Latin monēta through another route; money, mint, and manat are doublets. en.wiktionary.org