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exchequer

UK/ɛksˈt͡ʃɛ.kɚ/US/ɛksˈt͡ʃɛ.kɚ/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,906 of 15,258mostly written

The exchequer is the national treasury that holds public money. The public exchequer, a cost to the exchequer, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The name is a chessboard, since medieval accounts were reckoned with counters on a chequered cloth, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer still carries the title. Any cost to the exchequer is a cost to the taxpayer.

Definitions of exchequer

  1. 1nounexchequerThe national treasury that holds public money.C2

    “The new tax will bring billions of pounds into the exchequer.”

exchequer is a treasury.

Where it comes from

Anglo-Norman escheker means a chessboard, from the chequered cloth on which accounts were reckoned.

  1. Middle English

    escheker

  2. English, today

    exchequer

From Middle English escheker. From Middle English escheker, from Anglo-Norman escheker (“chessboard”), from Medieval Latin scaccarium. This is because the cloth on which the treasurer counted money was chequered like a chessboard.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

exchequer in the wild

  • More taxation demanded staff at the exchequer to sift an increase in the case load causing more widespread litigation cases to come to the court.

    Baron of the Exchequer

  • The shadow chancellor of the exchequer in the British Parliamentary system is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who is responsible for shadowing the chancellor of the exchequer.

    Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

  • The exchequer secretary to the Treasury is the departmental Minister for HM Revenue and Customs, the Valuation Office Agency and the Government Actuary's Department.

    Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.