currency

English

Etymology

Borrowing 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) fluency; readiness of utterance
5. (obsolete) Current value; general estimation; the rate at which anything is generally valued.

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

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

Derived terms

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

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 (aržuytʿ)
• Azeri: valyuta (az)
• Basque: dibisa
• Bavarian: Zahlungsmidd
• Belarusian: валю́та f (valjúta)
• Bengali: মুদ্রা (mudra)
• Breton: moneiz
• Bulgarian: валу́та (bg) f (valúta)
• Burmese: ငွေကြေး (my) (ngwe-kre:)
• Catalan: moneda (ca) f
• 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)
• Esperanto: mono (eo), valuto (eo)
• Estonian: valuuta
• Finnish: valuutta (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: valuta (hu)
• Icelandic: gjaldmiðill m, gjaldeyrir m
• Ido: 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 (ruupəyyea voattʰo)
• Korean: 통화 (ko) (tonghwa) (通貨 (ko)), 화폐 (ko) (hwapye) (貨幣 (ko))

• 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
• Mongolian: мөнгөн гүйлгээ (möngön güjlgee), валют (mn) (valjut)
• 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
• 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: וואלוטע‏‎ f (valute)

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 (dravyaṃ)

See also

• Category:Currency symbols