pfennig
Americannoun
-
a copper-coated iron coin and monetary unit of Germany until the euro was adopted, one 100th of a Deutsche mark.
-
(formerly) a minor coin and monetary unit of East Germany, one 100th of an ostmark.
noun
-
a former German monetary unit worth one hundredth of a Deutschmark
-
(formerly) a monetary unit worth one hundredth of an East German ostmark
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pfennig
First recorded in 1540–50; from German: penny
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Jürgen Klopp should therefore decide to make do, and spend every precious pfennig of his summer pot on a top-drawer replacement for the woefully erratic Dejan Lovren instead.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 28, 2017
Maybe the pfennig will drop and he’ll resort to putting his German center half up front in the waning minutes.
From New York Times ● May 14, 2011
"Tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock," snapped Dr. Schacht, "I should refuse to pay even one pfennig more!"
From Time Magazine Archive
The Fatherland paid all the passage money, every pfennig.
From Time Magazine Archive
For some parents, it was a financial hardship to purchase the required uniform and pay ten pfennig, or pennies, as monthly dues.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
In point of fact, at such times tickets of admission were to be had at the hotel for fifty pfennige each.
From Selected Stories of Bret Harte by Harte, Bret
If it is out of repair, as he said it was, my fifty crowns are not so many pfennige.
From The Puppet Crown by MacGrath, Harold
The reviews were sent to the editor; the critical invoice amounted to three florins four groschen and five pfennige.
From Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces; or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel. by Jean Paul
Then they again offered me the indulgence, but in this way: I was to buy it with six pfennige, and these pfennige were to be returned to me for myself.
From Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. I. by Freytag, Gustav
I may mention, that the binding of an 18mo. volume in boards, covered in paper, cost one groschen, eight pfennige, or, as nearly as it can be calculated, twopence in English money.
From A Tramp's Wallet stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France by Duthie, William
Breakfast from 6am to 1pm, 75 pfennigs, one cup of coffee…
From Economist ● Mar. 8, 2018
Regardless, the value of the 1936 Olympic Games couldn’t be measured in marks and pfennigs.
From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2018
The war was half- forgotten for the Americans in 1955, but for one of the former prisoners, Hans Richter, 60, that was the year he fled East Germany with 60 pfennigs in his pocket.
From Time Magazine Archive
In pre-war days 87 pfennigs would buy an Austrian crown, to-day it takes more than a mark to buy a crown.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had hoped to receive a few pfennigs for carrying the petrol.
From A Hero of Li?ge by Strang, Herbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
