ledger

1 a record in which commercial accounts are recorded; "they got a subpoena to examine our books" [syn: leger, account book, book of account, book]

2 an accounting journal as a physical object; "he bought a new daybook" [syn: daybook]

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛdʒə(r)

Noun

ledger (Plural: ledgers)

1. A book for keeping notes, especially one for keeping accounting records.

   A collection of accounting entries consisting of credits and debits.

   A board attached to a wall to provide support for attaching other structural elements (such as deck joists or roof rafters) to the building.

Translations

A ledger (from the English dialect forms liggen or leggen, to lie or lay; in sense adapted from the Dutch substantive logger), is the principal book for recording transactions. Originally, the term referred to a book remaining regularly in one place, and so it was used of the copies of the Scriptures and service books kept in a church.

According to Charles Wriothesley's Chronicle (1538):

the curates should provide a booke of the bible in Englishe, of the largest volume, to be a lidger in the same church for the parishioners to read on.

It is an application of this original meaning that is found in the commercial usage of the term for the principal book of account in a business house, the general ledger or nominal ledger (see also bookkeeping) and also in the terms purchase ledger and sales ledger.

Domesday Book, account, account book, accounts payable ledger, accounts receivable ledger, address book, adversaria, album, annual, appointment calendar, appointment schedule, balance sheet, bank ledger, bankbook, bill, bill of fare, bill of lading, blankbook, blotter, books, calendar, card ledger, carte, cashbook, catalog, classified catalog, commonplace book, cost card, cost ledger, cost sheet, court calendar, daybook, desk calendar, diary, diptych, docket, engagement book, factory ledger, inventory, invoice, journal, log, logbook, loose-leaf notebook, manifest, memo book, memorandum book, memory book, menu, notebook, pad, passbook, petty cashbook, pocket notebook, pocketbook, police blotter, purchase ledger, record book, register, registry, sales journal, sales ledger, scrapbook, scratch pad, spiral notebook, statement, stock ledger, stores ledger, suspense ledger, table, tablet, triptych, workbook, writing tablet, yearbook