currency

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin currentia, from Latin currēns, from currō. By surface analysis, current +‎ -cy.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US, hurry–furry merger):

  (file)

Noun

currency (countable and uncountable, plural currencies)

1. Money or other items used to facilitate transactions.

   Wampum was used as a currency by Amerindians.

   • 1986 May 25, William G. McBride, “INVESTING; CHASING RETURNS IN DIFFERENT CURRENCIES”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Money managers who play down currencies tend to argue that outguessing foreign exchange markets in the short term is perilous, and that, over the long haul, shifts in currency values tend to offset one another.

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[ornelius] 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 beginning with this term

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

Compound words and phrases ending with this term

• closed currency
• commodity currency
• common currency
• cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, crypto currency
• cybercurrency
• digital currency
• e-currency
• eurocurrency
• Eurocurrency
• fiat currency
• foreign currency
• green currency
• hard currency
• in-game currency
• key currency
• metacurrency
• microcurrency
• multicurrency
• noncurrency
• paper currency
• petrocurrency
• reserve currency
• settlement currency
• single currency
• time-based currency
• toy currency
• virtual currency
• xenocurrency

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) (aržuytʻ)
• 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／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 (ka) (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 (ja) (つうか, tsūka), 貨幣 (ja) (かへい, kahei)
• Kazakh: валюта (valüta)
• Khmer: រូបិយវត្ថុ (ruupəyyĕəʼvŏətthoʼ)
• Korean: 통화(通貨) (ko) (tonghwa), 화폐(貨幣) (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, divisa (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