What does checkbook mean?
A checkbook is a small book of sequentially numbered blank checks that a bank issues to an account holder, allowing payments to be made by writing a check against funds held in a checking account. Each check typically records the payee's name, the amount in figures and words, and the account holder's signature. The word belongs chiefly to American English, where a checking account is the standard term; British speakers use chequebook and current account instead. Though once ubiquitous in everyday commerce, the checkbook has become less common as debit cards, online banking, and electronic transfers have displaced paper checks, lending the word a faintly old-fashioned flavor. It survives in idiomatic expressions such as balancing the checkbook, meaning reconciling one's recorded transactions against a bank statement. The underlying word check derives ultimately from the Persian shah, entering English through the language of chess before coming to mean a written order for payment.
nounA book of printed blank checks issued by a bank to an account holder, used for making payments by check.
- A book of blank checks provided by a bank for drawing on a checking account.
"She wrote out the rent payment and tore it carefully from her checkbook."
"He flipped open his checkbook and paid the contractor in full."
"Balancing the checkbook at month's end helped her catch a duplicate charge."
Regular plural formation; British spelling gives chequebooks.
"The bank offered personalized covers for its customers' checkbooks."
Every checkbook check carries the DNA of a board game — the word traces back through Arabic and French to 'shah', Persian for king, from chess.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of checkbook
Checkbook combines check (American spelling) or cheque (British spelling) with book. The financial sense of check — a written order directing a bank to pay money — developed in English during the 17th and 18th centuries. The word itself traces much further back: it comes from the exclamation 'check' in chess, from Old French eschec, borrowed from Arabic shāh, which derives from Persian shāh, meaning king. Related cognates include chess, exchequer, and checkerboard.
How checkbook is actually used
Primarily American English; British English uses chequebook with the spelling cheque. Increasingly associated with older generations as electronic payments displace paper checks, so the word can carry a slightly old-fashioned connotation.
Easily confused with checkbook
Chequebook is simply the British spelling of the same word, not a different word — 'check' is American, 'cheque' is British.