Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An insurance company that specializes in guaranteeing the timely repayment of bond principal and interest in the event of default.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A trade-name of a form of typesetting machine which produces a solid line of type, or type-bar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun business A company operating in only one industry or line of business; often specifically a bank specializing in credit card issuance.
  • noun finance An insurer specialized in insuring investment-grade securities against loss.
  • noun calligraphy A font line of consistent width, as occurs when imitating pencil script.
  • noun aquaculture A length of monofilament line, used for culturing forms of seaweed.
  • noun printing, dated A type of composing machine in which each line of type is cast as a single slug.
  • noun spectroscopy A single spectrum line.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the fact that such companies have only one line of business or field of activity.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From mono- +‎ line.

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Examples

  • He held a hearing in mid-December on the demise of those so-called monoline insurers at the hands of mortgage-related deals.

    New York to Review Bond Insurers' Fraud Claims Katy Burne 2011

  • While a downgrade would be unprecedented, he compares it to the fall of some so-called monoline insurers of bonds in 2008, which stirred deep uncertainty in the market.

    Muni-Pricing Services Brace for Downgrade Daisy Maxey 2011

  • Morgan Stanley's filing also noted that the firm had tempered a bearish trading position that the firm had on insurance firm MBIA Inc. The short-term move, part of an overall hedging strategy tied to Morgan's ownership of municipal bonds and mortgage securities, resulted in "a positive net derivative counterparty exposure of $782 million" to the so-called monoline insurance firms, primarily MBIA, the filing said.

    Morgan Stanley Settles U.S. Bank Suit; Other Legal Issues Remain Brett Philbin 2011

  • Citigroup has reserves of about $5.5 billion for exposure to so-called monoline insurers, including Ambac, in the event they are unable to fulfill their commitments.

    State Regulator Takes Over Ambac's Troubled Contracts Aparajita Saha-Bubna 2010

  • Citigroup has reserves of about $5.5 billion for exposure to so-called monoline insurers, including Ambac, in the event they are unable to fulfill their commitments.

    State Regulator Takes Over Ambac's Troubled Contracts Aparajita Saha-Bubna 2010

  • Citigroup has reserves of about $5.5 billion for exposure to so-called monoline insurers, including Ambac, in the event they are unable to fulfill their commitments.

    State Regulator Takes Over Ambac's Troubled Contracts Aparajita Saha-Bubna 2010

  • Citigroup has reserves of about $5.5 billion for exposure to so-called monoline insurers, including Ambac, in the event they are unable to fulfill their commitments.

    State Regulator Takes Over Ambac's Troubled Contracts Aparajita Saha-Bubna 2010

  • Citigroup has reserves of about $5.5 billion for exposure to so-called monoline insurers, including Ambac, in the event they are unable to fulfill their commitments.

    State Regulator Takes Over Ambac's Troubled Contracts Aparajita Saha-Bubna 2010

  • Agricole said its exposure to so-called monoline bond insurers cut net profit by €1.34 billion in the first half and €693 million in the second quarter.

    Credit Agricole's Investment Bank 2008

  • It has challenged the legitimacy of entire business models -- think of the so-called monoline bond insurers or the government-sponsored housing enterprises.

    Survival Bets on Blue Chips 2008

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