currency

[kur-uh n-see, kuhr-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR currency ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural cur·ren·cies.

something that is used as a medium of exchange; money.

general acceptance; prevalence; vogue.

a time or period during which something is widely accepted and circulated.

the fact or quality of being widely accepted and circulated from person to person.

circulation, as of coin.

Origin of currency

From the Medieval Latin word currentia, dating back to 1650–60. See current, -ency

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for currency

cash, notes, dough, wad, cabbage, roll, bread, moolah, specie, dinero, coinage

Examples from the Web for currency

Contemporary Examples of currency

At currency auctions, it traded at around 64.45 rubles to the dollar and 78.8 to the euro.
How Crimea Crashed the Russian Economy
Anna Nemtsova
December 17, 2014
Currency problems are procyclical, which is to say that they create their own momentum.
Putin Can’t Bully or Bomb a Recession
Daniel Gross
December 16, 2014
They say the currency devalues a few points just in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette.
Recession? Devaluation? Inflation? Putin Tells Russia Stay the Course.
Anna Nemtsova
December 4, 2014
They form a daily currency by which we settle relationships, but they also create doubt.
Wonder Woman’s Creation Story Is Wilder Than You Could Ever Imagine
Tom Arnold-Forster
November 3, 2014
In the wildly popular HBO show Game of Thrones, blood, like sex, is currency.
Sex, Blood and Maroon 5: Pop Culture’s Wounds Run Deep
Lizzie Crocker
October 3, 2014

Historical Examples of currency

Connected with this subject is the character of the currency.
United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches
Various
With acute precipitancy he was separated from the currency that had come to him.
Thoroughbreds
W. A. Fraser
The nation was deeply in debt, and its currency was a paper one.
The Nation in a Nutshell
George Makepeace Towle
It is its general recognition that gives a truth a proverb's currency.
The Railroad Question
William Larrabee
His money he never got back, but gold is not the currency of the other world.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891
Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for currency

currency

noun plural -cies

a metal or paper medium of exchange that is in current use in a particular country

general acceptance or circulation; prevalencethe currency of ideas

the period of time during which something is valid, accepted, or in force

the act of being passed from person to person

Australian (formerly) the local medium of exchange, esp in the colonies, as distinct from sterling

Australian slang

(formerly) the native-born Australians, as distinct from the British immigrants
(as modifier)a currency lad

Word Origin for currency

C17: from Medieval Latin currentia, literally: a flowing, from Latin currere to run, flow

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

Word Origin and History for currency

1650s, "condition of flowing," from Latin currens, present participle of currere "to run" (see current (adj.)); the sense of a flow or course extended 1699 (by John Locke) to "circulation of money."

currency in Culture

currency

Any form of money in actual use as a medium of exchange.