cashless

IPA/ˈkæʃləs/
KK[kˈæʃləs]IPA/ˈkæʃləs/

cashless — adjective

  • cashlesspositive
  • more cashlesscomparative
  • most cashlesssuperlative

1. describes a payment method, business, or community where people use cards, mobil

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

describes a payment method, business, or community where people use cards, mobile apps, or digital transfers instead of paper money and coins

Example

Many shops in the city have become completely cashless, accepting only cards and phone payments.

collocation: completely cashless

The country's move toward a cashless society has made everyday transactions faster and safer.

collocation: cashless society

Common collocations
  • cashless society
  • cashless payment
  • cashless transaction
  • go cashless
  • cashless economy
Synonyms
  • digital

    broader term that includes all computer-based methods, not specifically the absence of physical money

  • contactless

    refers to tap-to-pay technology, which is one type of cashless payment

Antonyms
  • cash-only

    a place or business that accepts only physical money

Usage Note

Can be used before a noun (a cashless society, cashless payments) or after verbs like 'become' and 'go' (the cafe went cashless last year).

Common Mistakes

I paid cashless for the coffee.
I made a cashless payment for the coffee.
cashless is an adjective, not an adverb. Use it to describe the system or method, not the action of paying.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Cashless focuses specifically on the absence of physical money — a cashless transaction uses no coins or notes, whether done by card, app, or online transfer. Digital is a much wider term covering anything stored or processed by computers, so a 'digital wallet' is also digital, but not every digital payment is necessarily cashless (for example, an ATM transaction is digital but still involves cash). Contactless refers only to payments made by tapping a card or device near a reader, which is a subset of cashless methods. Electronic is the broadest label, covering all payments made through electronic systems, including those where cash may play a role in the background. If you want to stress that no physical money changes hands, choose cashless; if you want to stress the technology itself, choose digital or electronic.

cashless ↗digital ↗contactless ↗electronic ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • go cashless
  • move toward a cashless society

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Cashless is formed from the noun cash (paper money and coins) plus the suffix -less, meaning 'without'. The word cash came into English from French caisse, a money box or chest, which traces back to Latin capsa, a box or case. The compound cashless first appeared in the mid-1900s as credit cards and electronic banking began to spread.