Definition of "tael" [tael]

• Any of various units of weight used in eastern Asia, roughly equivalent to 38 grams (1 1/3 ounces). (noun)
• A monetary unit formerly used in China, equivalent in value to this weight of standard silver. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Therefore to convert Lanchow cash into Tientsin cash you must divide the Lanchow cash by 3, count 975 as 1000, and consider this equal to a certain percentage of a theoretical amount of silver known as a tael, which is always varying of itself as well as by the fluctuations in the market value of silver, and which is not alike in any two places, and may widely vary in different portions of the same place."
• "Scrap refiners, known as fabricators, were then charging $5-$10 per Chinese tael, which is comparable to an ounce."
• "Silver, measured out in a unit called a tael, each equivalent to a thousand coppers, was the trading medium of the powerful hong merchants of Canton."