coupon

American  

[koo-pon, kyoo-] / ˈku pɒn, ˈkju- /

noun

• coupons
  plural

1. 

   a portion of a certificate, ticket, label, advertisement, or the like, set off from the main body by dotted lines or the like to emphasize its separability, entitling the holder to something, as a gift or discount, or for use as an order blank, a contest entry form, etc.

2. a separate certificate, ticket, etc., for the same purpose.

3. Finance. one of a number of small detachable certificates calling for periodic interest payments on a bearer bond.

4. Metallurgy. a sample of metal or metalwork submitted to a customer or testing agency for approval.

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coupon British  

/ ˈkuːpɒn /

noun

1. 1. a detachable part of a ticket or advertisement entitling the holder to a discount, free gift, etc

   2. a detachable slip usable as a commercial order form

   3. a voucher given away with certain goods, a certain number of which are exchangeable for goods offered by the manufacturers

2. one of a number of detachable certificates attached to a bond, esp a bearer bond, the surrender of which entitles the bearer to receive interest payments

3. one of several detachable cards used for making hire-purchase payments

4. a ticket issued to facilitate rationing

5. a detachable entry form for any of certain competitions, esp football pools

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Pronunciation

Coupon, related to cope and coup, is of French origin. It has developed an American pronunciation variant with an unhistorical y -sound not justified by the spelling. This pronunciation is used by educated speakers and is well-established as perfectly standard, although it is sometimes criticized. Its development may have been encouraged by analogy with words like curious, cupid, and cute, where c is followed by a “long u ” and the is mandatory.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• couponless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• coupons
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of coupon

1815–25; < French; Old French colpon piece cut off, equivalent to colp(er) to cut ( see cope ¹) + -on noun suffix

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Explanation

A coupon is a certificate or a voucher that lets you buy something at a discounted price. When you hand the cashier your coupon, he will subtract some amount from your total bill. You can cut coupons out of a newspaper, get them in the mail, or find them online. A restaurant coupon might offer a free beverage when you buy dinner, and a grocery store coupon could give you a five dollar savings on your dog's favorite kind of kibble. The original coupons were used by Coca Cola in the late 1800s — they were vouchers for a free Coke, and they're credited with spreading the soft drink's popularity across the United States.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

coupon coupons

The down payment help will be in the form of loans, and coupon payments funded by the loan interest are expected to pay back bond investors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

In the Treasury’s announcement Wednesday, the department left long-end coupon issuance sizes unchanged for now, saying it will sell $125 billion in notes and bonds next week.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 4, 2026

Clip the digital coupon before you leave home.

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026

Suppose that, on Sept. 30, you could have paid $1 million for a 30-year Treasury bond with a 5.6% coupon, a maturity value of $1 million and a maturity date of Sept. 30, 2056.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

Calista threw away a coupon for a free Big Mac. cumin.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

She clipped coupons until she was 88, so the money meant a lot to him.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

Prices have always fluctuated; coupons have always rewarded some shoppers more than others.

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026

So-called autocallable ETFs pay coupons like bonds but are linked to equity risk.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

This year, however, I gave it a chance and found that the coupons inside could actually be useful.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

And often, even if you had coupons, you couldn’t get the things because they weren’t available.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

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Related Words

• advertisement
• card
• certificate
• voucher

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