Treasury bill
- noun
- /ˈtrɛʒəri bɪl/
- Specialized
- Many people prefer to invest in Treasury bills rather than stocks for their stability and low risk.
- U.S. Treasury bills
- Treasury bill auctions
Can you walk through the steps where we say goodbye to the dollar, to the treasury bills?
- Can you walk through the steps where we say goodbye to the dollar, to the treasury bills?
Examples
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Well, remember that treasury bills don't have any default risk, at least as far as we know.
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Investors often choose Treasury bills because they are considered a safe and reliable investment.
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That means a lot of people are out there buying Treasury bills now, probably as we speak.
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If China simply stops buying U.S. Treasury bills at the same pace as it has been, it could damage the U.S. economy.
Academic text (2007) -
When investors fled to safety, they fled to U.S. Treasury bills.
Academic text (2009) -
How much money are they allocating to cash plus treasury bills compared to history?
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Average yield for a one-year treasury bill rose to 5.28 last week.
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ASME pooled investments consist of mutual funds, bonds and notes, common and preferred stock, U.S. Treasury bills, and money market funds.
Academic text (2001) -
Floating the Egyptian pound and initiating treasury bill auctions brought some $14 billion in reserves into the central bank coffers.
Academic text (1993) -
One outgrowth of this monetary strategy was the weekly auction of Treasury bills, which is now a major tool for regulating money and credit, and for financing the fiscal deficit.
Academic text (1995)
Synonyms
A loan to a government that pays interest over time and is usually safe
A short-term loan to the U.S. government that you buy for less and the government repays within one year
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'Treasury bill' is partly compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'Treasury' (government finance) and 'bill' (a financial document) can infer it's a government financial paper. However, the specific technical sense — a short-term discounted government security redeemable at face value with no interest — is specialized and not fully predictable from the common word meanings, so learners would likely only get a vague idea without prior exposure.
Etymology
Treasury bill comes from the image of the government's treasury, its money chest, issuing a small paper bill that promises to pay later. It is literally a government 'IOU' you buy for less now and later get the full amount, so the name explains why it is a short government loan.