Different words for “money”
Posted on 12. Jun, 2012 by gabriele in Culture, English Vocabulary
Money. This is something most people want more of and at the same time it is something people are always taking out of their wallet and giving away…to buy things of course! In the United States there are six denominations* of paper money: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $100. The $2 bill is not commonly used in the United States, but it does exist. There are also six denominations of coin money in America: $0.01, $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00. Both the $0.50 and $1.00 coins are rarely used in the United States, though they do exist. There are many more than six ways to say the word money in American English though. In fact there may be as many as 100 different synonyms for the word money in American English. Below I have list eleven different words that can be used as synonyms for the word “money” in American English. Some of these words aren’t exact synonyms. That is, you couldn’t take the word money out of a sentence and replace it with one of these words, but these words all do refer to money. I have noted in parentheses next to a word if it has a special connotation. Many of these words are very commonly used in English and most are slang. If you listen to an American movie or a conversation between Americans I am sure you will hear the majority of these words before very long.
Benjamins (This term generally refers to $100 bills that have a picture of Benjamin Franklin on them.)
bread
coin (Even though coins are metal money, this term is used to refer to money in general.)
cash (This word refers to actual money, not money on credit cards or checks.)
dolla dolla bills
dollars (This terms generally refers to paper money.)
dough
greenbacks (This term often refers to paper money but can be used to refer to American currency in general.)
moolah
mint
smackers (This word almost always only refers to paper money.)
*denomination = a series of values in a system of currency
