Bullion Meaning
/ˈbʊl.jən/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA bulk quantity of precious metal, usually gold or silver, assessed by weight and typically cast as ingots.
nounBase or uncurrent coin.
Sentence Examples
The vault was filled to the brim with gold bullion bars.
Each bar of bullion was stamped with its weight, purity, and serial number.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The vault contained stacks of gold ____ worth millions of dollars.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The bank stores hundreds of gold ____ bars in its high security vault.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English bulloin, bullioun, from Anglo-Norman bullion, of obscure origin, perhaps from French bouillon, extending the sense to that of ‘melting’. Middle Dutch boelioen (“base metal”) seems to have come from the unrelated French billon.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"If the mint kept back one per cent, to pay the expense of coinage, it would be against the interest of the holders of bullion to have it coined, until the coin was more valuable than the bullion by at least that fraction."
— 1848, John Stuart Mill, chapter VI, in Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, book III (Exchange), page 25:
"And those which eld's strict doom did disallow, / And damn for bullion, go for current now."
— 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, translated by Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC:
"To beholde how it was garnysshyd and bounde, […]
The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde; […]"
— 1523, John Skelton, A ryght delectable tratyse upon a goodly Garlande or Chapelet of Laurell; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 345, lines 1154–1165:
"The hair was plaited with bullion and red riband, and then wound round the head, something after the fashion of a turban, save that it entirely displayed the forehead."
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 257:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The vault contained stacks of gold ____ worth millions of dollars.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The bank stores hundreds of gold ____ bars in its high security vault.