peso

[pey-soh, pe-saw]

noun

plural

pesos 

1. a coin and monetary unit of Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, and the Philippines, equal to 100 centavos.

2. a coin and monetary unit of Uruguay, equal to 100 centesimos.

3. a former monetary unit of Argentina, equal to 100 centavos: replaced by the austral in 1985.

4. a former silver coin of Spain and Spanish America, equal to eight reals; dollar; piece of eight; piaster.

peso

/ ˈpeso, ˈpeɪsəʊ /

noun

1. the standard monetary unit, comprising 100 centavos, of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the Philippines; formerly also of Guinea-Bissau, where it was replaced by the CFA franc

2. the standard monetary unit of Uruguay, divided into 100 centesimos

3. another name for piece of eight

Word History and Origins

Origin of peso¹

< Spanish: literally, weight < Latin pēnsum something weighed, noun use of neuter of pēnsus, past participle of pendere to weigh

Word History and Origins

Origin of peso¹

C16: from Spanish: weight, from Latin pēnsum something weighed out, from pendere to weigh

Example Sentences

“Today we directly purchased Argentine pesos,” Bessent said in a post on X External link, adding that the U.S. has also finalized plans for a $20 billion currency swap.

Read more on Barron's

The currency crisis demonstrates that defending the peso against speculative attacks requires burning through more dollars than would be needed to dollarize the economy formally.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In currencies, the Argentine peso rallied against the U.S. dollar.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The value of the peso has declined sharply in recent months, while investors have been dumping Argentine stocks and bonds.

Read more on BBC

Only three of 13 economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected the move, with the rest predicting a hold amid weakness in the peso and uncertainty about the outlook.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal