Definition of: money

(mun′ē) noun plural mon·eys or mon·ies
1. Anything that serves as a common medium of exchange in trade, as coin or notes. ♦Collateral adjective: pecuniary.
2. Legal tender for debts.
3. Purchasing power; credit; bank deposits, etc.; a denomination of value or unit of account.
4. Wealth; property.
5. plural Cash payments or receipts.
6. A system of coinage.
—call money Money loaned on security, or deposited in a bank, subject to repayment on demand of the lender.
—hard money Metallic currency or specie. [<OF moneie <L moneta. Doublet of MINT.] Synonyms: bills, bullion, capital, cash, coin, currency, funds, gold, notes, property, silver, specie. Money is the authorized medium of exchange; coined money is called coin or specie. What are termed in England banknotes are in the United States commonly called bills: a five-dollar bill. Cash is specie or money in hand, or paid in hand: the cash account; the cash price. In the legal sense, property is not money, and money is not property; for property is that which has inherent value, while money, as such, has but representative value, and may or may not have intrinsic value. Bullion is either gold or silver uncoined or the coined metal considered without reference to its coinage, but simply as merchandise, when its value as bullion may be very different from its value as money. The word capital is used chiefly of accumulated property or money invested in productive enterprises or available for such investment. Compare PROPERTY, WEALTH.