lira
Americannoun
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lire,
plural
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liras
plural
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a coin and monetary unit of Italy until the euro was adopted, equal to 100 centesimi. L., Lit.
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a monetary unit of Malta, San Marino, and the Vatican City until the euro was adopted.
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a silver, bronze, or chrome steel coin and monetary unit of Turkey, equal to 100 kurus; equal to 100 piasters before 1933; Turkish pound. TL.
noun
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the former standard monetary unit of Italy, San Marino, and the Vatican City, divided into 100 centesimi; replaced by the euro in 2002
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Also called: pound. the standard monetary unit of Turkey, divided into 100 kuruş
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the former standard monetary unit of Malta, divided into 100 cents or 1000 mils; replaced by the euro in 2008
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lira
1610–20; < Italian < Old Provençal lieura < Latin lībra pound
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Turkey's biggest clubs generate substantial income in euros through Uefa competition while many domestic operating costs remain in Turkish lira.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Elsewhere, Turkey has drawn down about 60 metric tons from its reserves since the conflict began — about $8 billion worth of gold — to defend the lira, she said.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 4, 2026
Earlier this month, the central bank suspended weekly repo auctions and launched a new lira-settled foreign exchange forwards facility to stem the fall in the lira.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
The volatility of the lira creates foreign-exchange risk.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
I paid him when it was over and tipped him half a lira.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
Hatzigeorgiou says he often finds bags and backpacks with Turkish liras or packets of medicine in Turkish discarded around the village by people on the move.
From Reuters ● Aug. 25, 2023
"If he stays it will be 100 liras."
From BBC ● May 4, 2023
The central bank said exporters would be required to exchange 25% of their foreign currency revenue into liras.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2022
“The rent has gone up from 1,500 liras to almost 2,500 liras since last year. I don’t know where this is all going.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2021
"Bring it round and let us see how it is ridden," they say, " and if we like it we will purchase it for fifty liras, and perhaps make you a present besides."
From Around the World on a Bicycle - Volume 1 From San Francisco to Teheran by Thomas Stevens
He feeds lire into a public scale and, shocked by the number, embarks on a starvation diet so extreme he winds up passing out near the Uffizi Gallery.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2024
He said the Turkish government would offer families 10,000 Turkish lire, or around $530.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 9, 2023
When she was summoned to the Cinecitta studios, the hub of Italian cinema, she was offered 1,000 lire to sign.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2023
The cash introduction saw the new euro notes and coins quickly replace German marks, French francs and Italian lire in ATMs, cash registers, and wallets and purses.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 31, 2021
Catherine had a little over twelve hundred lire.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
