currency

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin currentia, from Latin currēns, from currō.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/, /ˈkɝ.ən.si/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)

Noun

currency (countable and uncountable, plural currencies)

1. Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.

   Wampum was used as a currency by Amerindians.

2. (more specifically) Paper money.
   • 1943, William Saroyan, The Human Comedy, chapter 3,

     Spangler went through his pockets, coming out with a handful of small coins, one piece of currency and a hard-boiled egg.

3. The state of being current; general acceptance or recognition.

   The jargon’s currency.

4. (obsolete) Current value; general estimation; the rate at which anything is generally valued.
   • a. 1627 (date written)​, Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, OCLC 557721855:

     He […] takes greatness of kingdoms according to their bulk and currency, and not after intrinsic value.

   • 1819 July 31​, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “English Writers on America”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number II, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], OCLC 1090970992, page 112:

     The bare name of Englishman […] too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and ungrateful.

5. (obsolete) fluency; readiness of utterance

Derived terms

• (economics): fiat currency, closed currency, hard currency, metacurrency, cryptocurrency

Related terms

• current
• course

Translations

money or other item used to facilitate transactions

• Afrikaans: geldeenheid
• Albanian: devizë (sq) f, valutë (sq) f
• Arabic: عُمْلَة‎ f (ʿumla)
• Armenian: արժույթ (hy) (aržuytʿ)
• Azerbaijani: valyuta (az)
• Basque: dibisa
• Bavarian: Zahlungsmidd
• Belarusian: валю́та f (valjúta)
• Bengali: মুদ্রা (mudra)
• Breton: moneiz (br)
• Bulgarian: валу́та (bg) f (valúta)
• Burmese: ငွေကြေး (my) (ngwe-kre:)
• Catalan: moneda (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᎠᏕᎳ (adela)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 貨幣 (zh), 货币 (zh) (huòbì)

• Czech: měna (cs) f, valuta (cs) f
• Danish: valuta (da) c
• Dutch: munteenheid (nl) f, valuta (nl) f
• Esperanto: mono (eo), valuto (eo)
• Estonian: valuuta
• Finnish: valuutta (fi) (primarily foreign currency); maksuväline (fi) (means of payment); raha (fi)
• French: monnaie (fr) f, devise (fr) f, numéraire (fr) m
• Galician: moeda (gl) f
• Georgian: ვალუტა (valuṭa)
• German: Währung (de) f
• Greek: νόμισμα (el) n (nómisma)
• Hebrew: מַטְבֵּעַ‎ (he) m (matbéa')
• Hindi: मुद्रा (hi) f (mudrā)
• Hungarian: fizetőeszköz (hu), pénznem (hu), pénz (hu), valuta (hu), valutanem, deviza (hu), devizanem
• Icelandic: gjaldmiðill m, gjaldeyrir m
• Ido: moneto (io), valuto (io)
• Indonesian: mata uang (id), valuta (id)
• Interlingua: moneta, numerario
• Irish: airgeadra m, airgead (ga) m, airgead reatha m
• Italian: valuta (it)
• Japanese: 通貨 (ja) (つうか, tsūka), 貨幣 (ja) (かへい, kahei)
• Kazakh: валюта (valywta)
• Khmer: រូបិយវត្ថុ (ruupəyyĕəʼvŏətthoʼ)
• Korean: 통화(通貨) (ko) (tonghwa), 화폐(貨幣) (ko) (hwapye)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: yekeya diravê (ku)

• Kyrgyz: валюта (ky) (valyuta)

• Lao: ເງິນຕາ (ngœn tā)
• Latvian: valūta (lv) f
• Lithuanian: valiuta (lt) f
• Macedonian: валута f (valuta)
• Malay: mata wang (ms)
• Maori: pūnaha moni
• Middle English: coynage
• Mongolian: мөнгөн гүйлгээ (möngön güilgee), валют (mn) (valyut)
• Navajo: béeso
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: valuta (no) m

  Nynorsk: valuta m

• Persian: پول‎ (fa) (pul)
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: kurencii
• Polish: waluta (pl) f
• Portuguese: moeda (pt) f
• Romanian: valută (ro) f
• Russian: валю́та (ru) f (valjúta)
• Rusyn: мі́на f (mína), валю́та f (valjúta)
• Scots: siller
• Scottish Gaelic: ruith-airgid
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: валу́та f

  Roman: valúta (sh) f

• Slovak: mena f, valuta f
• Slovene: valuta f, plačilno sredstvo n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: pjenjeze pl

  Upper Sorbian: měna f

• Spanish: moneda (es) f
• Swahili: fulusi (sw)
• Swedish: valuta (sv)
• Tajik: асъор (tg) (asʾor), арз (arz), валюта (tg) (valyuta)
• Tatar: валюта (walyuta)
• Thai: เงินตรา (th) (ngən-dtraa)
• Turkish: para birimi (tr)
• Turkmen: walýuta
• Ukrainian: валю́та (uk) f (valjúta)
• Uzbek: valyuta (uz)
• Vietnamese: tiền tệ (vi), ngoại tệ (vi) (foreign currency), ngoại hối (vi)
• Welsh: arian breiniol (cy)
• Yiddish: וואַלוטע‎ f (valute)

paper money

• Finnish: seteliraha (fi), paperiraha (fi)

• French: billet de banque (fr) m (literally)
• Hungarian: papírpénz (hu), bankjegy (hu)

state of being current; general acceptance or recognition

• Finnish: ajantasaisuus (fi) (pertaining to present time); hyväksyttävyys (fi) (acceptance)
• French: courant (fr)

• Hungarian: közhasználat, forgalom (hu), érvény (hu), érvényesség (hu), elfogadottság
• Polish: aktualność (pl) f
• Russian: распространённость (ru) f (rasprostranjónnostʹ), употреби́тельность (ru) f (upotrebítelʹnostʹ)
• Turkish: geçerlilik (tr)

fluency — see fluency

current value; general estimation

• Finnish: arvostus (fi), arvonanto

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} gjaldmiðill m, ^{(please verify)} gjaldeyrir m
• Norman: ^{(please verify)} cours m (Jersey)

• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} ద్రవ్యం (te) (dravyaṁ)

See also

• Category:Currency symbols