noun pl. pennies
- in the United Kingdom and certain other countries,
- a monetary unit equal to of a pound
- before 1971, a monetary unit equal to of a shilling: abbrev. d
- a coin worth one penny
- ☆ a U.S. or Canadian cent
- any of several other low-value coins, as a denarius
- a sum of money: now chiefly in the following phrases
Origin:
ME peny < OE penig, pening, akin to Ger pfennig: < ? early WGmc borrowing < L pannus, cloth: see pawn