Meaning of penny in English

penny

/ˈpen.i/ us

/ˈpen.i/

plural pence uk/pents/ us/pents/ p /piː/ us/piː/ pennies

B1 plural p, pence or pennies

(abbreviation p)

the smallest unit of money in the UK, of which there are 100 in a pound, or a small coin worth this much. You use "pence" or, more informally, "p" when you are talking about the units of money and pennies when you are talking about the coins themselves:

Could you lend me 50 pence/50p please?

fifty pence piece I found a fifty pence piece (= a coin with a value of 50 pence) on the floor.

I keep pennies and other small coins in a jar.

plural pennies

in the US and Canada, a cent or a coin of this value

plural pence or pennies

(also old penny); (abbreviation d)

in the UK and Ireland before 1971, a unit of money and a coin. There were twelve pennies in a shilling.

plural pence or pennies

used when talking about the smallest amount of money possible:

Buy a TV now and it won't cost you a penny (= will cost nothing) for three months.

It was an expensive meal but worth every penny.

More examplesFewer examples

He has calculated the costs down to the last penny.
Ten pence is donated to charity for every bottle sold.
I keep pennies and other small coins in a jar.
When we were first married we had to pinch pennies just to get by.
The machine will only accept 10p coins.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

British money

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

North American money

Payment methods

Idioms

be penny-wise and pound-foolish
be two/ten a penny
in for a penny (in for a pound)
not have a penny to your name
the penny drops
(a) penny for your thoughts
a penny saved is a penny earned

-penny

suffix

/ -pen.i/ us

/ -pen.i/

used in the past with numbers to show how many pence something cost:

a fourpenny ice-cream

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

British money

See more results »

(Definition of penny from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

penny | American Dictionary

penny

noun [ C ]

/ˈpen·i/

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in the US and Canada, a coin worth 1/100th of a dollar; a cent:

I keep pennies in a jar.

A penny can also mean the smallest amount of money possible or the total cost of something:

Our insurance didn’t cover a penny of our medical bills.

It was an expensive meal but worth every penny.

Idiom

a penny for your thoughts

(Definition of penny from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

penny | Business English

penny

noun [ C ]

/ˈpeni/ us

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MONEY abbreviation plural pence | pennies

(also p)

the smallest unit of money used in the UK. There are 100 pence in one pound (= the currency of the UK):

a 20/50p piece

Shares in the rival group are up 7 pence at 638p.

MONEY plural pennies

in the US and Canada, a cent (= one hundredth of a dollar)

used in expressions to refer to a very small amount of money:

We have never taken a penny of aid from federal government.

If you pay it back within six months, you won't pay a penny in interest.

(Definition of penny from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of penny

penny

It was only in the late 1820s that transactions in pounds, shillings and pence became virtually extinct.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It was those disadvantages which explain in part the persistence of accounts in pounds, shillings and pence until well into the nineteenth century.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This information complicates our assumptions about penny-weekly fiction; it also suggests that we need to rethink matters of form.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In cases like (17) the (implied) debt is referential, but the pennies to pay it off are not (yet).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Most of the staff of the technical universities and the research laboratories are now pensioners - and they work for pennies.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I think they were brought up saving money and being very careful with every penny they had that they just didn't want to spend it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Accommodations for women included standard water closets available for their use at a charge of one penny.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

While these were denominated in pounds, shillings and pence there was no parity of value.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

By 1638 he and his wife were living in half of a four-room house, paying a yearly rent of twelve pence.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Without redirecting the focus of economic evaluation research, choosing in health care bears the risk to remain penny-wise but pound-foolish.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The corresponding blocks in would consist of a singleton block and k blocks of size 2, and hence cost only k pence in total.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Of these, 7 (58.3 per cent) were for 6 pence, one for 12d, two for 16d, one for 3s and one for 4s.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The eight pence he earned per day was, he said, substantial salary, especially when a man lived with a relative as he did.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Urinals were offered as a free public service by municipal governments, and men were often charged a penny for water closets.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The penny, however, and the question one inevitably confronted about whether to spend it to access the lavatory, has a much longer history.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of penny

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of penny, -penny?

What is the pronunciation of pence?

Translations of penny

in Chinese (Traditional)

（英國）便士（最小的貨幣單位，100便士為1英鎊，表示幣值時用 pence 或在非正式場合也可用 p，而表示硬幣本身時用 pennies）, （美國和加拿大的）分（幣）, 便士（英國在1971年以前使用的大硬幣，12便士等於1先令）…

Meaning of penny in English

Idioms

penny | American Dictionary

Idiom

penny | Business English

Examples of penny

Translations of penny

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