penny

penny

See also: Penny

English

A 2005 US penny

Etymology

From Middle English penny, peny, from Old English peniġ, penniġ, penning (“penny”), from Proto-West Germanic *panning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz, of uncertain origin (see that page for theories). Doublet of pfennig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛ.ni/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛni
• (in compounds like "twopenny", dated) IPA^(key): /pəni/

Noun

penny (plural pennies or pence or (obsolete) pens)

1. (historical) In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: d.
   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0056:

     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 unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. 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 (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
   • 2015 November 22, “Pennies”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 35, HBO:

     Holy shit! A hundred and eleven pennies! At that point, that dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd.

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

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

     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 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 or its value): 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-grass
• penny pincher
• penny wedding
• penny whistle
• pennywort
• pretty penny
• sixpenny nail
• spend a penny
• tenpenny nail
• watch the pennies

Descendants

Descendants of penny (noun) in other languages

• → Bulgarian: пени (peni)
• → Czech: penny
• → Dutch: penny
• → Finnish: penny
• → French: penny
• → German: Penny
• → Hebrew: פֶּנִי‎ (péni)
• → Hindi: पेनी (penī)
• → Hungarian: penny
• → Japanese: ペニー (penī)
• → Korean: 페니 (peni)
• → Macedonian: пе́ни (péni)
• → Malay: peni
• → Maori: pene
• → Marathi: पेनी (penī)
• → Norman: pénîn
• → Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: penny

  Norwegian Nynorsk: penny

• → Portuguese: pêni (Brazil), péni (Portugal)
• → Russian: пе́нни (pénni)
• → Swahili: peni
• → Swedish: penny
• → Thai: เพนนี (peen-nii)
• → Turkish: peni
• → Uyghur: پەنى‎ (peni)
• → Volapük: pänid

Translations

1/240 of a pound sterling or Irish pound

Bulgarian: пени (bg) n (peni) 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 Norwegian: Bokmål: penny m Nynorsk: (please verify) penny 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) Bulgarian: пени (bg) n (peni) 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) Macedonian: пе́ни n (péni) Malay: peni Maori: kapa, pene Marathi: पेनी (penī), पेन्स (pensa) Norman: pénîn m Norwegian: Bokmål: penny m Nynorsk: (please verify) penny Portuguese: pêni (pt) m (B), péni (pt) m (P) Russian: пе́нни (ru) n (pénni), пенс (ru) m (pens) Scottish Gaelic: sgillinn f 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

See also

• pence § Descendants

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.
3. (Oxbridge slang) During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to drop a penny in a person's drink such that they must finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.

   You got pennied! Down it, fresher.

See also

• d
• cent
• the penny drops

Anagrams

• Pynne

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from English penny.

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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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

English penny, from Middle English peny, from Old English penning, penniġ, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz. Doublet of penge, penning, and pfennig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛn.nɪ/

Noun

penny m (definite singular pennyen, indefinite plural pence or pennyer, definite plural pencene or pennyene)

1. a penny

References

• “penny” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “penny” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

English penny, from Middle English peny, from Old English penning, penniġ, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz. Doublet of penge, penning, and pfennig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛn.nɪ/

Noun

penny m (plural pennyen)

1. a penny

References

• “penny” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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Portuguese

Noun

penny m (plural pennies)

1. Alternative spelling of péni

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Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English penny.

Noun

penny m (plural penny)

1. penny

Declension

Declension of penny

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) penny	pennyul	(niște) penny	pennyi
genitive/dative	(unui) penny	pennyului	(unor) penny	pennylor
vocative	pennyule		pennylor