Meaning & use
a ledger
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A book or computer file in which a business records all its money transactions.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a ledger', 'two ledgers', 'the sales ledger'.
Patterns
- keep a ledger
- enter something in a ledger
- a sales/general ledger
Every sale the shop makes is written into a ledger at the end of the day.
The accountant checked the ledger and found two payments that had never been recorded.
She keeps a small ledger for the household budget on her laptop.
nouncountableliteraryold-fashioned
A flat stone slab that covers a grave, or the grave itself.
Grammar: Countable and rather literary; common in older writing about churches and cemeteries.
Patterns
- a stone ledger
- lie beneath a ledger
The old church floor is paved with ledgers bearing the names of long-dead families.
Moss had grown over the ledger where the village priest was buried.
Word forms
| plural | ledgers |
|---|
Common combinations
- keep a ledger
- The club treasurer has kept a careful ledger since 1998.
- general ledger
- All the branch accounts are finally posted to the general ledger.
- enter something in a ledger
- Please enter each cash payment in the ledger before you leave.
- a page of a ledger
- A page of the ledger had been torn out and never replaced.
Synonyms and how they differ
- account book
- Very close in meaning, but 'account book' sounds older and is used mostly for paper records, while a ledger can also be a computer file.
- register
- A register is an official list of names, events or items, not a record of money, so it fits school or voting records better than accounts.
- log
- A log records events over time, such as a ship's log or a computer log, not the balance of money owed and paid.
Word family
- ledger line noun
- In music, a short line added above or below the staff for a note that is out of range.
Commonly confused: a ledger or leger? a ledger or legend?
a ledger vs leger
'Leger' appears in 'ledger line' spelled with a d, but 'leger' alone is a rare word for a fishing net or a type of bookkeeping entry; learners mostly meet 'ledger' in business contexts.
a ledger vs legend
'Legend' means an old story or a very famous person; it sounds similar to 'ledger' but has nothing to do with accounts.
Practice
The company records every payment it makes in its ______.
Choose one answer.
'Ledger' is the book or file for recording money transactions, which fits 'records every payment'. 'Legend' means a famous story or person, 'lecture' is a talk, and 'leisure' is free time, so none of them fits an accounting context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a ledger”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.