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) 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) (primarily foreign currency); maksuväline (means of payment); raha
• 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: וואַלוטע‏‎ f (valute)

paper money

• Finnish: seteliraha, paperiraha

state of being current; general acceptance or recognition

• Finnish: ajantasaisuus (pertaining to present time); hyväksyttävyys (acceptance)

fluency — see fluency

current value; general estimation

• Finnish: arvostus, 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 (dravyaṃ)

See also

• Category:Currency symbols