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twenty dollar bill

twenty dollar bill

4 1.0
A piece of United States paper money worth twenty dollars
  • noun
  • /ˈtwɛnti ˈdɑːlər bɪl/
  • US
translation icon : billete de veinte dólares
  • His mother would slip twenty-dollar bills to him.
  • handed over a twenty dollar bill
  • pulled out a twenty dollar bill
  • held a twenty dollar bill

Examples

  • Result of competition for my affection: Dad gave me a twenty-dollar bill.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • In a West Wing ceremony, Secretary of the Treasury Chase presents Lincoln with a newly minted twenty-dollar bill.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Pull out all the twenty dollar bills!

  • I had lifted a twenty-dollar bill from my father.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Jacob reaches into his pants pocket, pulls out a twenty-dollar bill, and hands it to the driver.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • I extracted a twenty-dollar bill from my wallet and stuffed it into the jar.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • "If you'll show me?" Bedlington handed him a twenty-dollar bill.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • West peeled off two twenty-dollar bills and laid them before a woman with tall blond hair and platinum-painted fingernails.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Jo Lynn's hand instantly flopped over the front seat, waving five twenty-dollar bills beside Sara's head.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Jacob reaches into his pants pocket, pulls out a twenty dollar bill, and hands it to the driver.

How Valuable

twenty dollar bill
  • US
4 1.0
ten dollar bill
  • US
3 1.0
five dollar bill
  • US
4 1.0
one dollar bill
  • US
4 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

twenty + dollar + bill

The phrase is fully compositional: 'twenty' (a number) + 'dollar' (currency unit) + 'bill' (paper money) combine straightforwardly to denote a banknote worth twenty dollars. This follows regular English noun phrase composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.

Etymology

The name twenty dollar bill comes from the simple idea of a paper note worth twenty dollars: twenty is the amount, dollar names the US money, and bill means a 'paper note' you can spend. So it means 'a United States banknote with a value of twenty dollars'.