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# twopence

«twopence» in Mova's school dictionary: **The sum of two pennies in British money** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (twopence, also tuppence)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The sum of two pennies in British money. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#m1)

2) (old) A British coin worth two old pennies, used before 1971. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#m2)

3) (informal, «not care twopence») to not care at all. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Money and history lessons: before 1971 Britain had pounds, shillings and pence, with 12 pennies in a shilling. Today a 2p coin exists. In Mary Poppins the bird woman sells crumbs for «tuppence a bag». Maths: twopence = 2p; in old money, twopence was 2 of the 240 pennies in a pound.

### examples

- The sweets cost twopence each. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x1)
- «Feed the birds, tuppence a bag!» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x2)
- I wouldn't give twopence for that old toy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x3)
- She found a twopence coin from 1930. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x4)
- Twelve pennies made one shilling. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x5)
- Two twopences make fourpence. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x6)
- He didn't care twopence what they said. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x7)
- If you like to give me twopence you can have the rest.’ [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/twopence/#x8)

### note

Say «TUP-pence». Often spelled «tuppence». Maths: twopence = 2 pence; old money: 12d = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = £1, so £1 = 240d. Today 100p = £1.

### Trees and pragmatics

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