piastre

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A coin and unit of currency, originally a Spanish or Spanish-American one worth eight real, later also used (with various values) in the Ottoman Empire and in Cyprus, in the French-speaking parts of Canada, and in French Indochina.
  2. A form of currency currently used as a subunit in the Middle Eastern and East African countries of Egypt, Jordan (partly including Palestine), Lebanon, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.
  3. A dollar.

Pronunciation

/piˈæstɚ/ /piˈɑstɚ/ /piˈæstə/ /piˈɑːstə/

Word forms

piastre piastres piaster pyaster

Etymology

From French piastre, from Italian piastra (“plate of wood or metal; coin”), probably from Latin emplastra.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.