English Explanatory Dictionary

penny

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. In the United Kingdom and Ireland and many other countries, 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.
  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. 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: ¢.
  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.
verb
  1. To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.
  2. 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. During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to drop a penny in a person's drink with the expectation that they finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.
name
  1. A diminutive of the female given name Penelope.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A place name, presumably all taken from the surname:
  3. An unincorporated community in Calloway County, Kentucky, United States.
  4. An unincorporated community in Pike County, Kentucky.
  5. A small community on the Fraser River in central British Columbia, Canada.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɛni/ En-us-penny.ogg /ˈpɪni/ /pəni/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Penny.wav

Word forms

penny pennies pence pens peny penie pennie pennying pennied

Etymology

Etymology tree Pre-Greekder.? Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē)bor. Latin patina Latin panna? Latin pannus? Proto-Indo-European *-n̥kʷo-der.? Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Germanic *-īnaz Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz ? Proto-Germanic *-ingaz Proto-Germanic *panningaz Proto-West Germanic *panning Old English peniġ Middle English peny English penny From Middle English 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 and fening.

Synonyms

old penny 1⁄100 of a pound sterling cent

Related words

pence § Descendants d cent

Derived words

a bad penny always comes back a bad penny always turns up a penny saved is a penny earned a penny saved is a penny gained a pound to a penny bad penny bright as a new penny catchpenny clean as a new penny dead man's penny death penny eighteenpenny eightpenny eightpenny nail eight penny nail eight-penny nail elevenpenny fair penny fifteenpenny fine penny fivepenny fortypenny fourpenny four penny nail fourpenny nail four-penny nail fourteenpenny get-penny God's penny hearth-penny in for a penny, in for a pound jam penny Kissi penny lickpenny luck penny megapenny ninepenny pence penniless penny-a-line penny-a-liner penny-ante penny ante penny arcade penny auction penny bank Penny Black penny bun penny candy penny chew pennycress penny dog penny dreadful penny-dreadfulish penny-dreadfulism penny fall penny-farthing penny farthing penny-father penny for one's thoughts
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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