penny

See also: Penny

English

A 2005 US penny

Etymology

From Middle English peni, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English penning, penniġ, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *panningaz, of uncertain origin (see that page for theories).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛ.ni/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛni
• IPA^(key): /pəni/

Noun

penny (plural pennies or pence)

1. (historical) In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a copper coin worth ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation. Abbreviation: d.
   • Template:RQ:BLwnds TLdgr

     Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

2. In the United Kingdom, a copper coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling. Abbreviation: p.
3. (historical) In Ireland, a coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
4. In the US and Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
5. In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
6. A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
7. Money in general.

   to turn an honest penny

   • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)

     What penny hath Rome borne, / What men provided, what munition sent?

Usage notes

The plural pence is only used as a unit of currency. The plural is pennies is used for other cases, in particular when referring to multiple individual coins.

Compounds (twopence, threepence, fourpence and so on up to tenpence, but not eleven pence or any higher) should be read with the stress on the first syllable and a reduced /ə/ in pence. Thus /ˈtʌpəns/, /ˈθɹʌpəns/, /ˈfɔːpəns/ and so on.

Synonyms

• (¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling): old penny
• (¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling): new penny (old-fashioned)
• (one-cent coin): cent

Derived terms

Terms derived from penny (noun)

• a bad penny always turns up
• bad penny
• eightpenny nail
• fourpenny nail
• in for a penny, in for a pound
• pence

• penniless
• penny ante
• penny arcade
• Penny Black
• penny dreadful
• penny-farthing
• penny-father
• penny for one's thoughts

• penny pincher
• penny wedding
• penny whistle
• pretty penny
• sixpenny nail
• spend a penny
• tenpenny nail
• watch the pennies

Translations

1/240 of a pound sterling or Irish pound

• French: penny (fr) m
• Hindi: पेनी (hi) f (penī)
• Irish: pingin f
• Luhya: litong'olo
• Macedonian: пе́ни n (péni)
• Malay: peni
• Marathi: पेनी (penī)
• Norman: pénîn m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: pêni (pt) m
• Russian: пе́нни (ru) n (pénni), пенс (ru) m (pens)
• Spanish: penique (es) m
• Swahili: peni (sw)
• Volapük: pänid (vo)
• Welsh: ceiniog (cy)

1/100 of a pound sterling or British pound

• Arabic: بِنْس m (bins)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 便士 (zh) (biànshì)

• Czech: cent (cs), penny (cs)
• Dutch: penny (nl) m
• Esperanto: penco
• Finnish: penny (fi)
• French: penny (fr) m
• German: Penny (de) m
• Hebrew: פֶּנִי (péni)
• Hindi: पेनी (hi) f (penī), पेन्स (hi) f pl (pens)
• Hungarian: penny (hu)
• Irish: pingin f, pinginí f pl, pingneacha f pl, pingineacha f pl (Cois Fharraige)
• Japanese: ペニー (penī)
• Korean: 페니 (peni)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: пе́ни n (péni)
• Malay: peni
• Maori: kapa, pene
• Marathi: पेनी (penī), पेन्स (pensa)
• Norman: pénîn m
• Portuguese: pêni (pt) m (B), péni (pt) m (P)
• Russian: пе́нни (ru) n (pénni), пенс (ru) m (pens)
• Scottish Gaelic: sgillinn f, sgillinean f pl
• Spanish: penique (es) m
• Swedish: penny (sv) c
• Thai: เพนนี (peen-nii)
• Turkish: peni (tr)
• Uyghur: پەنى (peni), پەنس (pens)
• Volapük: pänid (vo)
• Welsh: ceiniog (cy)

one-cent coin in US and Canada — see cent

Verb

penny (third-person singular simple present pennies, present participle pennying, simple past and past participle pennied)

1. (slang) To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.

   Zach and Ben had only been at college for a week when their door was pennied by the girls down the hall.

2. (electronics) To circumvent the tripping of an electrical circuit breaker by the dangerous practice of inserting a coin in place of a fuse in a fuse socket.

See also

• d
• cent
• the penny drops

Anagrams

• Pynne

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛ.ni/, /pe.ni/

Noun

penny m (plural pennys)

1. penny

Further reading

• “penny”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Portuguese

Noun

penny m (plural pennies)

1. Alternative spelling of péni