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Glite Dictionary
narco-dollar

narco-dollar

9.3
Money in US dollars that comes from illegal drug sales
  • noun
  • /ˈnɑrkoʊˌdɑlər/
  • NSFW
translation icon : narco-dólar
  • Many countries struggle with the impact of narco-dollars on their economies and political systems.

Lot of dollars, lot of dirty narco dollars getting exchanged for pesos.

Examples

  • The government is cracking down on businesses that accept narco-dollars from the drug trade.

  • Lot of dollars, lot of dirty narco dollars getting exchanged for pesos.

    Danny Jones

  • BBC's Panorama quoted a source that was close to the DEA as saying, "We were convinced that Stanford's bank attracted millions of narco-dollars, but it was very difficult to get the evidence to nail him."

    Blog text (24)

  • Laundering narco-dollars can lead to severe penalties for those involved in the drug trade.

Synonyms

narcodollar
vsnarco-dollar
  • NSFW
9.9

Money made from selling illegal drugs, often US dollars

is the same meaning but written with a hyphen instead of as one word

Surface Forms

narco-dollar singular
narco-dollars plural

Morphology

narco-dollar = narco + dollar (semi-transparent) = narco + dollar

While 'narco' and 'dollar' are clear components, the specific meaning related to illegal drug trade is specialized and not immediately obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Narco-dollar combines narco- from narcotics, which means 'drugs', with dollar, meaning 'US money'. So narco-dollar is a US dollar that comes from the illegal drug trade, and a helpful way to remember it is as 'drug dollars'.