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bank

banks; banking; banked

Unless you hide it under your mattress, you probably keep your money in a bank, or a business that stores and invests money.

There are several different meanings of the word bank. Besides the ones connected with money — like a savings bank or a piggy bank — a bank is also a slope of grass or earth, such as a river bank. Both of these are rooted in a Germanic word, bankiz, or "bank of earth." From this root came words meaning "shelf" and "table." The money-related bank came from the "table" meaning, banque in Middle French, as in "moneylender's exchange table."

Definitions of bank
  1. noun
    a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities
    “he cashed a check at the bank
    “that bank holds the mortgage on my home”
    synonyms: banking company, banking concern, depository financial institution
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    types:
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    credit union
    a cooperative depository financial institution whose members can obtain loans from their combined savings
    Federal Reserve Bank, reserve bank
    one of 12 regional banks that monitor and act as depositories for banks in their region
    agent bank
    a bank that acts as an agent for a foreign bank
    commercial bank, full service bank
    a financial institution that accepts demand deposits and makes loans and provides other services for the public
    state bank
    a bank chartered by a state rather than by the federal government
    agent bank, lead bank
    a bank named by a lending syndicate of several banks to protect their interests
    member bank
    a bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System
    acquirer, merchant bank
    a credit card processing bank; merchants receive credit for credit card receipts less a processing fee
    acquirer
    a corporation gaining financial control over another corporation or financial institution through a payment in cash or an exchange of stock
    thrift institution
    a depository financial institution intended to encourage personal savings and home buying
    Home Loan Bank
    one of 11 regional banks that monitor and make short-term credit advances to thrift institutions in their region
    national bank
    a commercial bank chartered by the federal government
    savings and loan, savings and loan association
    a thrift institution that is required by law to make a certain percentage of its loans as home mortgages
    savings bank
    a thrift institution in the northeastern United States; since deregulation in the 1980s they offer services competitive with many commercial banks
    type of:
    financial institution, financial organisation, financial organization
    an institution (public or private) that collects funds (from the public or other institutions) and invests them in financial assets
  2. noun
    a building in which the business of banking transacted
    “the bank is on the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon”
    synonyms: bank building
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    type of:
    deposit, depositary, depository, repository
    a facility where things can be deposited for storage or safekeeping
  3. noun
    a supply or stock held in reserve for future use (especially in emergencies)
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    types:
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    blood bank
    a place for storing whole blood or blood plasma
    eye bank
    a place for storing and preserving corneas that are obtained from human corpses immediately after death; used for corneal transplantation to patients with corneal defects
    food bank
    a place where food is contributed and made available to those in need
    soil bank
    land retired from crop cultivation and planted with soil-building crops; government subsidies are paid to farmers for their retired land
    type of:
    backlog, reserve, stockpile
    something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose
  4. noun
    a container (usually with a slot in the top) for keeping money at home
    “the coin bank was empty”
    synonyms: coin bank, money box, savings bank
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    types:
    penny bank, piggy bank
    a child's coin bank (often shaped like a pig)
    type of:
    container
    any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another)
  5. verb
    do business with a bank or keep an account at a bank
    “Where do you bank in this town?”
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    type of:
    transact
    conduct business
  6. verb
    put into a bank account
    synonyms: deposit
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    Antonyms:
    draw, draw off, take out, withdraw
    remove (a commodity) from (a supply source)
    draw, take out
    take liquid out of a container or well
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    types:
    redeposit
    deposit once again
    type of:
    give
    transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody
  7. verb
    be in the banking business
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    type of:
    do work, work
    be employed
  8. verb
    have confidence or faith in
    bank on your good education”
    synonyms: rely, swear, trust
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    Antonyms:
    disbelieve, distrust, mistrust, suspect
    regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in
    types:
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    credit
    have trust in; trust in the truth or veracity of
    lean, rely
    rely on for support
    bet, calculate, count, depend, look, reckon
    have faith or confidence in
    believe
    credit with veracity
    type of:
    believe
    accept as true; take to be true
  9. noun
    the funds held by a gambling house or the dealer in some gambling games
    “he tried to break the bank at Monte Carlo”
  10. verb
    act as the banker in a game or in gambling
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    type of:
    act
    discharge one's duties
  11. noun
    sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water)
    “they pulled the canoe up on the bank
    “he sat on the bank of the river and watched the currents”
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    types:
    riverbank, riverside
    the bank of a river
    waterside
    land bordering a body of water
    type of:
    incline, side, slope
    an elevated geological formation
  12. noun
    a slope in the turn of a road or track; the outside is higher than the inside in order to reduce the effects of centrifugal force
    synonyms: camber, cant
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    type of:
    incline, side, slope
    an elevated geological formation
  13. noun
    a long ridge or pile
    “a huge bank of earth”
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    types:
    bluff
    a high steep bank (usually formed by river erosion)
    sandbank
    a submerged bank of sand near a shore or in a river; can be exposed at low tide
    shoal
    a sandbank in a stretch of water that is visible at low tide
    type of:
    ridge
    a long narrow natural elevation or striation
  14. verb
    enclose with a bank
    bank roads”
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    type of:
    close in, enclose, inclose, shut in
    surround completely
  15. verb
    cover with ashes so to control the rate of burning
    bank a fire”
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    type of:
    cover
    provide with a covering or cause to be covered
  16. noun
    an arrangement of similar objects in a row or in tiers
    “he operated a bank of switches”
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    type of:
    array
    an orderly arrangement
  17. verb
    tip laterally
    “the pilot had to bank the aircraft”
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    type of:
    tip
    cause to tilt
  18. noun
    a flight maneuver; aircraft tips laterally about its longitudinal axis (especially in turning)
    “the plane went into a steep bank
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    types:
    vertical bank
    a bank so steep that the plane's lateral axis approaches the vertical
    type of:
    airplane maneuver, flight maneuver
    a maneuver executed by an aircraft
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘bank'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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