currency

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin currentia, from Latin currēns, from currō.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹ.ən.si/, /ˈkɝ.ən.si/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)

Noun

currency (countable and uncountable, plural currencies)

1. Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.

   Wampum was used as a currency by Amerindians.

2. (more specifically) Paper money.
   • 1943, William Saroyan, chapter 3, in The Human Comedy:

     Spangler went through his pockets, coming out with a handful of small coins, one piece of currency and a hard-boiled egg.

3. The state of being current; general acceptance, recognition or use.

   The jargon’s currency.

   • 1983 April 9, Kenneth Hale Wehmann, “Conscientious Resistance”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

     Fear of punishment has no currency with me as long as I remain convinced of the larger value of what I have done.

4. (obsolete) Current value; general estimation; the rate at which anything is generally valued.
   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:

     He […] takes greatness of kingdoms according to their bulk and currency, and not after intrinsic value.

   • 1819 July 31, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “English Writers on America”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number II, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 112:

     The bare name of Englishman […] too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and ungrateful.

5. (obsolete) Fluency; readiness of utterance.

Derived terms

Compound words and phrases with this term at the beginning

• currency adjustment factor
• currency band
• currency basket
• currency cocktail
• currency code
• currency detector
• currency exchange
• currency intervention
• currency overlay
• currency risk
• currency sign
• currency strap
• currency war

Compound words and phrases with this term at the end

• closed currency
• commodity currency
• common currency
• cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, crypto currency
• digital currency
• e-currency
• fiat currency
• foreign currency
• green currency
• hard currency
• in-game currency
• key currency
• metacurrency
• reserve currency
• settlement currency
• single currency
• time-based currency
• toy currency
• virtual currency

Related terms

• course
• current

 

Translations

money or other item used to facilitate transactions

• Afrikaans: geldeenheid
• Albanian: devizë (sq) f, valutë (sq) f
• Arabic: عُمْلَة f (ʕumla)
• Armenian: արժույթ (hy) (aržuytʿ)
• Azerbaijani: valyuta (az)
• Basque: dibisa
• Bavarian: Zahlungsmidd
• Belarusian: валю́та f (valjúta)
• Bengali: মুদ্রা (bn) (mudra)
• Breton: moneiz (br)
• Bulgarian: валу́та (bg) f (valúta)
• Burmese: ငွေကြေး (my) (ngwe-kre:)
• Carpathian Rusyn: мі́на f (mína), валю́та f (valjúta)
• Catalan: moneda (ca) f
• Cherokee: ᎠᏕᎳ (adela)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 貨幣かへい／货币 (zh) (huòbì)

• Czech: měna (cs) f, valuta (cs) f
• Danish: valuta (da) c
• Dutch: munteenheid (nl) f, valuta (nl) f
• Esperanto: mono (eo), valuto (eo)
• Estonian: valuuta
• Finnish: valuutta (fi) (primarily foreign currency); maksuväline (fi) (means of payment); raha (fi)
• French: monnaie (fr) f, devise (fr) f, numéraire (fr) m
• Galician: moeda (gl) f
• Georgian: ვალუტა (valuṭa)
• German: Währung (de) f
• Greek: νόμισμα (el) n (nómisma)
• Hebrew: מַטְבֵּעַ (he) m (matbéa')
• Hindi: मुद्रा (hi) f (mudrā), करंसी f (karansī)
• Hungarian: fizetőeszköz (hu), pénznem (hu), pénz (hu), valuta (hu), valutanem, deviza (hu), devizanem
• Icelandic: gjaldmiðill m, gjaldeyrir m
• Ido: moneto (io), valuto (io)
• Indonesian: mata uang (id), valuta (id)
• Interlingua: moneta, numerario
• Irish: airgeadra m, airgead (ga) m, airgead reatha m
• Italian: valuta (it)
• Japanese: 通貨つうか (ja) (つうか, tsūka), 貨幣かへい (ja) (かへい, kahei)
• Kazakh: валюта (valüta)
• Khmer: រូបិយវត្ថុ (ruupəyyĕəʼvŏətthoʼ)
• Korean: 통화(通貨つうか) (ko) (tonghwa), 화폐(貨幣かへい) (ko) (hwapye)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: yekeya diravê (ku)

• Kyrgyz: валюта (ky) (valyuta)
• Lao: ເງິນຕາ (ngœn tā)
• Latvian: valūta (lv) f
• Lithuanian: valiuta (lt) f
• Macedonian: валута f (valuta)
• Malay: mata wang (ms)
• Maori: pūnaha moni
• Middle English: coynage
• Mongolian: мөнгөн гүйлгээ (möngön güjlgee), валют (mn) (valjut)
• Navajo: béeso
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: valuta (no) m

  Nynorsk: valuta m

• Persian: پول (fa) (pul)
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: kurencii
• Polish: waluta (pl) f
• Portuguese: moeda (pt) f
• Romanian: valută (ro) f
• Russian: валю́та (ru) f (valjúta)
• Scots: siller
• Scottish Gaelic: ruith-airgid
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: валу́та f

  Roman: valúta (sh) f

• Slovak: mena f, valuta f
• Slovene: valuta f, plačilno sredstvo n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: pjenjeze pl

  Upper Sorbian: měna f

• Spanish: moneda (es) f
• Swahili: fulusi (sw)
• Swedish: valuta (sv)
• Tajik: асъор (tg) (asʾor), арз (arz), валюта (tg) (valyuta)
• Tatar: валюта (walyuta)
• Thai: เงินตรา (th) (ngən-dtraa)
• Turkish: para birimi (tr)
• Turkmen: walýuta
• Ukrainian: валю́та (uk) f (valjúta)
• Urdu: کَرَنْسی f (karansī)
• Uzbek: valyuta (uz)
• Vietnamese: tiền tệ (vi), ngoại tệ (vi) (foreign currency), ngoại hối (vi)
• Welsh: arian breiniol (cy)
• Yiddish: וואַלוטע f (valute)

paper money

• Finnish: seteliraha (fi), paperiraha (fi)
• French: billet de banque (fr) m (literally)
• Hungarian: papírpénz (hu), bankjegy (hu)

state of being current; general acceptance or recognition

• Finnish: ajantasaisuus (fi) (pertaining to present time); hyväksyttävyys (fi) (acceptance)
• French: courant (fr)
• Hungarian: közhasználat (hu), forgalom (hu), érvény (hu), érvényesség (hu), elfogadottság (hu)
• Polish: aktualność (pl) f
• Russian: распространённость (ru) f (rasprostranjónnostʹ), употреби́тельность (ru) f (upotrebítelʹnostʹ)
• Turkish: geçerlilik (tr)

(obsolete in English) current value; general estimation

• Finnish: arvostus (fi), arvonanto (fi)

(obsolete in English) fluency — see fluency

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} gjaldmiðill m, ^{(please verify)} gjaldeyrir m
• Norman: ^{(please verify)} cours m (Jersey)
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} ద్రవ్యం (te) (dravyaṁ)

See also

• Category:Currency symbols