penny
noun
Simple meaning
A coin worth one-hundredth of the value of the basic unit.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pehneeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɛni
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A coin worth one-hundredth of the value of the basic unit
In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
A diminutive of the female given name Penelope.
A small community on the Fraser River in central British Columbia, Canada.
In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A coin worth one-hundredth of the value of the basic unit
Used this way, penny is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- centime , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use penny
- “I found a shiny penny on the sidewalk this morning, which felt lucky.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A business deal on a trivial scale.
Poker played for small stakes.
An arcade with coin-operated devices for entertainment.
A child's coin bank (often shaped like a pig).
A melodramatic paperback novel.
Foetid Eurasian weed having round flat pods.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The amount that can be bought for a penny.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.