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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

People signed up their pets, used aliases and played games with mailing addresses to bilk the company out of new releases for less than the cost of 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

Mead said the 1945 penny emerged suddenly when her partner kicked down a wall during renovations.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

“For one month, write down every penny you spend,” he says.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

But the idea of my wish getting mixed up with hundreds and hundreds of strangers’ hopes made me drop the penny back into my purse.

From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the decision "falls far short of the accountability we expect" and that she would call in the Israeli ambassador.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 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

"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

Director Penny Marshall’s affectionate look at a women’s professional baseball league during World War II. The ensemble cast includes Geena Davis, Madonna, and Tom Hanks as the hard-to-please manager of the Rockford Peaches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

I scroll through my phone’s album and there are a lot of photos of Penny and screenshots of songs I’d recommend to Lidia.

From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Shares are down 3.5% in London to 349.70 pence, but are up 20% year to date.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Shares are down 4.1% at 298.40 pence, but are up 14% year to date.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

The proposals from CVC and Veritas value Bodycote at 907.8 pence and 906.8 pence respectively—excluding a 7.2 pence interim dividend—and are a 21% premium to the company’s last closing price before takeover interest was disclosed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Horrible about small problems, like missing a bus, or being ten pence short for the CD she wants, but good about the big problems, like when Mum had a big operation the year before.

From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd

Under Musk, X has transformed into a haven of bots looking to start fights for pennies.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

That changed more recently as the value of emptying office buildings plummeted, enabling developers to acquire these towers for pennies on the dollar.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 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

“Poor boy. That horrible man abandoned you, hurt your mother, and your long-lost sister expects you to help him. She doesn’t give two pennies about your feelings.”

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas