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)

Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.
Wampum was used as a currency by Amerindians.
(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.
The state of being current; general acceptance or recognition.
The jargon’scurrency.
(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.
(obsolete) fluency; readiness of utterance

Derived terms

Compound words and phrases with this term at the beginning

currency adjustment factor
currency band
currency basket
currency cocktail
currency code
currency detector
currency exchange
currency intervention
currency overlay
currency risk
currency sign
currency strap
currency war

Compound words and phrases with this term at the end

closed currency
commodity currency
common currency
cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, crypto currency
digital currency
e-currency
fiat currency
foreign currency
green currency
hard currency
in-game currency
key currency
metacurrency
reserve currency
single currency
virtual currency

Related terms

course
current

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／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 (valüta)
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 f
Lithuanian: valiuta (lt) f
Macedonian: валута f (valuta)
Malay: mata wang (ms)
Maori: pūnaha moni
Middle English: coynage
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
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)

(obsolete in English) current value; general estimation

Finnish: arvostus (fi), arvonanto (fi)

(obsolete in English) fluency — see fluency

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. 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)