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# penny

«penny» in Mova's school dictionary: **a coin** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (penny, pennies, pence)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A penny is a coin. In the US and Canada a penny is 1 cent; in Britain a penny is 1p and 100 pence make 1 pound. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#m1)

2) «Not a penny» means no money at all. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#m2)

3) «The penny dropped» means someone finally understood. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: a coin of small value; counting coins and their value; changing pennies to dollars or pence to pounds. In everyday life: saving pennies in a piggy bank. In stories and sayings: «a penny for your thoughts», «in for a penny, in for a pound», «a penny saved is a penny earned».

### examples

- He has 25 pennies. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x1)
- How many pennies make a dime? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x2)
- She saved 50 pennies. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x3)
- Each sweet costs 5 pence. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x4)
- A hundred pennies make one dollar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x5)
- He didn't have a penny left. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x6)
- After a minute, the penny dropped and she laughed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x7)
- A penny for your thoughts? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x8)
- But I have only fifty pennies. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/#x9)

### note

One penny = 1 cent; 100 pennies = 1 dollar. Plural «pennies» counts coins; «pence» is the British amount. Trap: change pennies to dollars by dividing by 100. 10 pennies = 1 dime; 5 pennies = 1 nickel. In Ireland and Australia, the old penny is no longer used (euro cents and Australian cents). Canada no longer makes pennies, so prices are rounded to 5 cents when paying cash.

### In the corpora

- [yìbǎi fēn («ee-BYE FUN») means a hundred marks, full marks; fēn also means minute and penny.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/15-school-words/14/)
- ["Spend a penny" is an old British way to say use the toilet; public toilets once cost a penny.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/6-toilet-words/10/)
- ["Spend a penny", "powder my nose" and "freshen up" can all mean go to the toilet.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/41-olympiad-euphemism-detective/12/)
- [In the USA a penny is 1 cent, a nickel 5 cents, a dime 10 cents and a quarter 25 cents.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/308-coins-pocket-money-saving-and-planning-time/4/)
- [A penny is worth 1 cent, a nickel 5 cents, a dime 10 cents and a quarter 25 cents.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/lessons/91-counting-coins/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «penny» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/penny/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.