# cheque

/ˈtʃɛk/ (US) · /tʃˈɛk/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/cheque
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 1. bank payment paper

noun · CEFR B1 · British English

a printed form you sign to tell your bank to pay money to someone else.

For teachers: a negotiable instrument directing a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a depositor's account.

- He wrote a cheque for fifty pounds to pay for the repairs.
- The landlord requested that the security deposit be paid by cheque or bank transfer rather than in cash.

Teaching tip: This spelling is standard in the UK, Australia, and Canada, whereas 'check' is used in the US. Note that cheques are becoming rare in modern daily life due to digital banking.

### 2. restaurant bill

noun · CEFR B2 · American English · Dialect

the piece of paper that tells you how much you must pay at a restaurant.

For teachers: the statement of charges presented to a customer in a restaurant or bar.

- We asked the waiter for the cheque after we finished our coffee.
- After a long dinner, they split the cheque evenly among the four guests.

Teaching tip: While 'cheque' is the British spelling for the bank document, this sense (the restaurant bill) is almost always spelled 'check' in the US and 'bill' in the UK.

## Examples

- I wrote a cheque to pay the rent.
- She filled out a cheque for fifty pounds and handed it to the cashier at the local market.
- Although digital payments dominate modern commerce, the physical cheque remains a legally binding instrument for settling large transactions in certain jurisdictions.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.