Let’s have some fun learning to speak English by using slang to talk about money. 🤑 Did you know that in American English we have over 101 ways to talk about money?
Each country has a different currency, and therefore different slang words for it. This is even true within the United States! Each state might have different slang words to go along with different American accents. It’s important to know these different names, as some of them are used as often (or more) as the official names for money in the United States.
In this lesson, we’ll share which slang words are most common, and the ones that native speakers actually use. But, we’ll also show you some that you should be aware of, even if you never actually get to use or hear them in the real world.
- CURRENCY: The units we use to exchange money for products or services.
- CASH: Physical money
- CHANGE: When you pay in cash, you’ll likely receive change, which is the remaining amount owed back to you after you pay a certain amount. You might also hear the expression ‘loose change’ or ‘spare change,’ which is pretty much any small amount of money you might have in your pocket/bag/drawer/nightstand/etc. These are common if you live in bigger cities, where the homeless, or people collecting money for a cause or charity, might come up to you in the street and ask.
- COINS: The metal form of money, called cents, which are broken up into 4 kinds in the USA.
- PENNY: 1 cent
- NICKEL: 5 cents
- DIME: 10 cents
- QUARTER: 25 center, because it is a quarter value of a dollar (100 cents)
- HALF DOLLAR: 50 cents, a coin that is not widely circulated, but exists! (not to be confused with Fifty Cent, the rapper 😂)
- MOOLA/MOOLAH
- BUCKS: This word comes from the buckskins that Native Americans used to trade as currency (you will also see this used in places like the lottery, eg. “Megabucks”).
- SINGLE: $1, and you can say singles to mean a lot of dollar bills
- DOLLAR BILL: one dollar (also the name of a character on a show called “Billions,” which is an amazing show to watch if you want to !)
- DOUGH
- BREAD
- CAKE
- CHUMP CHANGE: An insignificant amount of money.
- GREENBACK: Because the dollar is green!
- SMACKER
- LOOT: A general, non-countable amount
- BANK: As in to make bank, not the actual place where money is kept!
- BACON: As in to bring home the bacon, meaning to make money to pay the bills (in this case, bills means invoices you owe for services rendered, like your electricity or water bill, and not like a dollar bill, even though they all represent a value!)
- A ONE: a single dollar bill
- FIVE NOTE: a $5 bill
- FIVER: a $5 bill
- TEN NOTE: a $10 bill
- A TEN: a $10 bill
- A TWENTY: a $20 bill
- JACKSON: In reference to Andrew Jackson, the president on the $20 bill.
- DEAD PRESIDENTS: Most bills have pictures of dead presidents, and that’s where this name comes from.
- C-NOTE: C is the Roman numeral for 100, so this is slang for the $100 bill.
- FRANKLIN: $100, because the person on that bill is Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers of the USA, even though he was not the president!)
- BENJAMINS: $100, see above!
- BENJIES: $100, see above!
- GRAND: One grand equals one thousand dollars.
- K: In Greek, the letter K stands for kilo, which equals a thousand, and that’s why adding a K to an amount multiplies that number by 1,000 (3K = $3,000).
- BISCUITS
- GRAVY
- C.R.E.A.M.: Which comes from an acronym that stands for “cash rules everything around me,” created by the Wu-Tang Clan, a hip-hop group from NYC.
- CABBAGE
- LETTUCE
- SALAD
- CHEESE
- CHEDDAR
- TAMALES
- GUAP/GWOP:
- GUAC: Short for the delicious, green dish known as guacamole, which is another word for money!
- DINERO: From the Spanish word for money.
- PESO/PESOS: From the Spanish name for the official currency of several countries. This is also used as Spanish slang in Puerto Rico for the US dollar, which is the official currency there!
- BANDS: As in the rubber or paper bands use to wrap around money. 💵
- CAPITAL
- CHIPS: Not the edible kind, but instead the kind you’d use at a casino or in a game of poker.
- SCRILLA
- SCRILL
- CLAMS
- BONES
- SCRATCH
- DIMO
- PAPER
- STASH
- SIMOLEONS
- DIVIDENDS
- DOING UNITS
- DUB
- DUCKETS
- FETTI: From confetti! 🎊
- FIAT
- FIDEEN: fifteen, as in $15
- HUNNED: $100, also known as hunnies
- FINANCES: The state of one’s money.
- FUNDS
- GOLD
- GREEN
- GRIP
- KNOT
- LARGE
- LUCCI
- NUGGET
- PAYOLA
- POUND: Not like the British pound, but instead in reference to $5.
- RACKS
- RESOURCES
- RICHES
- STACKS
- TENDER
- TREASURE
- WAD
- YARD
- YEN
- MILLI: one million dollars
- M: one million dollars
- MM: one million dollars
- ROCK
- OPM: “Other People’s Money”
- BANKROLL
- SHILLINGS
- NOTES
- LOLLY
- READIES
- FOLDING STUFF
- COIN: Without the plural S, defined as the metallic currency, but can also be used to define money in general.
*Keep in mind that many of these words are slang, meaning they are not the correct way of pronouncing a word in a different sense, or the official term.