# penny

/ˈpɛni/ (US) · /pˈɛni/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/penny
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. a small coin

noun · CEFR A2

a small coin worth one cent in the US or one pence in the UK.

For teachers: a small-denomination coin worth 0.01 of a pound sterling or a dollar.

- He found a lucky penny on the sidewalk and put it in his pocket.
- The cashier struggled to count the jar of pennies while a long queue of impatient customers formed behind the counter.

### 2. money in general

noun · CEFR B2

a way to talk about money or the cost of something.

For teachers: used metonymically to refer to money, wealth, or the specific cost of an item, often in idiomatic expressions.

- That new sports car must have cost a pretty penny.
- The renovation ended up costing every penny of their savings, leaving them with no emergency fund for the winter.

### 3. historical currency

noun · CEFR C2 · British English · Archaic

an old British coin used before 1971 that was worth 1/240 of a pound.

For teachers: a historical unit of currency in the UK and Ireland worth 1/240 of a pound sterling prior to decimalisation in 1971.

- My grandfather kept a few old pennies from before the currency changed.
- Numismatists often seek out the 1933 penny due to its extreme rarity and the historical context of its limited production.

### 4. to bypass a fuse

verb · CEFR C2 · Technical · Informal

to dangerously fix a fuse by putting a coin in the socket.

For teachers: to circumvent a circuit breaker or fuse by inserting a coin into the socket, creating a significant fire hazard.

- The old house burned down because someone had pennied the fuse box.
- The fire investigator determined that the blaze originated in the basement after a tenant had pennied a blown fuse instead of replacing it.

Usage: The verb is transitive and describes a highly dangerous electrical practice.

## Examples

- The child found a shiny penny on the sidewalk.
- The total came to five pounds and one penny, so I searched my pockets for the extra coin.
- While the physical penny is increasingly rare in daily transactions, it remains a fundamental unit of account in many financial systems.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.