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centavo

[ sen-tah-voh; Spanish sen-tah-vaw ]

noun

, plural cen·ta·vos [sen-, tah, -vohz, sen-, tah, -vaws].
  1. one 100th of the monetary units of various nations, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Peru, and the Philippines.


centavo

/ sɛnˈtɑːvəʊ /

noun

  1. a monetary unit of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units
  2. a former monetary unit of Ecuador, El Salvador, and Portugal, worth one hundredth of their former standard units
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of centavo1

First recorded in 1880–85; from Spanish: “one 100th part,” equivalent to cent- “100” ( cent ) + -avo, from Latin -āvum as in octāvum “eighth”; octavo
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Word History and Origins

Origin of centavo1

Spanish: one hundredth part
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Example Sentences

The coupon cost 30 centavos in Spain but could be exchanged for a 5-10 cent US postal stamp.

A pound of rice used to cost 25 centavos, for example.

Our Goya can piggy bank was down to its last centavos.

Not one of his friends brought home more than a couple of centavos a week to his family, but each and every boy came home to eat.

When he first started working in the fields, in the nineteen-sixties, he earned fifty centavos for a day’s labor.

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