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• penny
  penny

  noun

  a copper and zinc U.S. coin, worth one 100th of the U.S. dollar; one cent. Previous compositions of U.S. pennies included certain percentages of nickel and steel.
• Penny
  Penny

  noun

  a female given name, form of Penelope.

penny

¹ American  

[pen-ee] / ˈpɛn i /

noun

• pennies,
  plural
• pence
  plural

1. a copper and zinc U.S. coin, worth one 100th of the U.S. dollar; one cent. Previous compositions of U.S. pennies included certain percentages of nickel and steel.

2. a coin worth one 100th of the dollar of various other nations, although several of these nations, as Australia and New Zealand, no longer use pennies.

3. Also called new penny.  a copper-plated steel, formerly bronze, coin of the United Kingdom, one 100th of a pound. p

4. a former bronze coin and monetary unit of the United Kingdom and various other nations, one 12th of a shilling: use phased out in 1971. d.

5. a sum of money.

   He spent every penny he ever earned.

6. the length of a nail in terms of certain standard designations, as eightpenny and sixtypenny.

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adjective

1. Stock Exchange. of, relating to, or being penny stock.

   frenzied speculation in the penny market.

idioms

1. spend a penny, to urinate.

2. turn an honest penny, to earn one's living honestly; make money by fair means.

   He's never turned an honest penny in his life.

3. a pretty penny, a considerable sum of money.

   Their car must have cost them a pretty penny.

4. a bad penny, someone or something undesirable.

Penny ² American  

[pen-ee] / ˈpɛn i /

noun

1. a female given name, form of Penelope.

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penny British  

/ ˈpɛnɪ /

noun

1. Also called (formerly): new penny.   p.  (in Britain) a bronze coin having a value equal to one hundredth of a pound

2.  d.  (in Britain before 1971) a bronze or copper coin having a value equal to one twelfth of a shilling or one two-hundred-and-fortieth of a pound

3. a former monetary unit of the Republic of Ireland worth one hundredth of a pound

4. (in the US and Canada) a cent

5. a coin of similar value, as used in several other countries

6. informal (used with a negative) the least amount of money

   I don't have a penny

7. informal an objectionable person or thing (esp in the phrase turn up like a bad penny )

8. informal a considerable sum of money

9. informal to urinate

10. informal the explanation of something was finally realized

11. plentiful but of little value

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penny More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing penny

• in for a penny, in for a pound
• pinch pennies
• pretty penny
• turn up (like a bad penny)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pennied
  adjective
• unpennied
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pence
  plural
• pennies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of penny

First recorded before 900; Middle English peni, Old English penig, pænig, pen(n)ning, pending, cognate with Old Frisian penning, panning, Old Saxon, Dutch penning, Old High German pfenning, phantinc, phenting ( German Pfennig ), Old Norse penningr (perhaps from Old English ); from unattested West Germanic or Germanic pandingaz, probably equivalent to unattested pand- + unattested -ingaz; see -ing ³. The origin of spend a penny is from the former cost of using a public lavatory

Explanation

It takes a hundred pennies to make a dollar. Even though it doesn't have a heck of a lot of value, a penny may bring you luck if you pick it up (as the saying goes). In the US, a penny is a one-cent, copper-colored coin, which features Abraham Lincoln's profile on one side. Many countries' currencies include pennies as the very smallest unit of money, including Canada, Britain, and South Africa. While the plural form of penny is pence in the UK, and it's often abbreviated as p there, in North America the plural is commonly pennies — and sometimes cents.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

penny Penny pence pennies

The U.S. investor here will be the Pentagon, of all agencies, which will structure the investment through penny warrants that will gain the equity stake without taxpayer cash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

Some experts argue the Lakers are worth every penny.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

The mail-order club would offer customers eight to 12 CDs, tapes, records — and, in later years, DVDs and blu-rays — for a penny.

From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026

During a BBC Radio Oxford interview, she returned the penny to a delighted Mead so that it could stay in the house and "continue the story".

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

She’d cleaned out his bank account before she left him, taking with her every penny he’d ever saved from his years as a quasi-famous Tejano singer.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

Penny went through the whole thing, explaining: Use the frequent flier miles for the best deal for the business class tickets and use cash for the ones in the back.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

We skirted Penny Island, where native Pomo people lived and farmed for generations before immigrants from Europe arrived.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

But Prof Penny Johnes, a leading water quality scientist at the University of Bristol, told BBC News the true picture was almost certainly worse than the classifications suggested.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

"The Australian Government is deeply frustrated and bitterly disappointed that authorities in Laos are not pursuing the most serious charges," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

Ms. Penny doesn’t say a word, just hugs her.

From "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

BHP’s London shares rise 0.4% to 3,256 pence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

JPM lowers its recommendation for the U.K. investment manager to underweight from neutral, but maintains the price target of 335 pence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Shares are up 0.7% at 354 pence and have climbed 21% over the year to date.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Shares fall 0.8% to 915.5 pence in London.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Wang Lung withdrew a little from the others and turned himself about to the wall and secretly with his hand in his girdle he counted out the pence he had left.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

Seeing into the future that she’d soon be asked to work for pennies while someone else got obscenely rich, she passed.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

I’ve also heard from various people telling me their whole financial picture, down to the pennies in their accounts, and the ins and outs of their divorces, estate fights and bad relationships with financial professionals.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

"There are so many people struggling to get by. Some months, we are really scraping the pennies and it can be difficult."

From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026

The other explanation is it’s a cash grab made for pennies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

We girls giggled and tossed pennies back and forth into our teacher Miss Stiles's chair before she arrived.

From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals