Coin
nounA small flat piece of metal, usually round, used as money.
How to spell coin
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce coin
What does coin mean?
- nounA small flat piece of metal, usually round, used as money.
- verbTo invent a new word or phrase, or to make money by stamping metal.
Coin in a sentence
-
noun
She dropped a coin into the parking meter.
-
verb
The journalist managed to coin a term that everyone now uses.
-
noun
The vending machine rejected the bent coin.
-
verb
Researchers often coin fresh jargon for new technologies.
Where does coin come from?
Language of origin: French
The word coin arrived in English in the 1300s from Old French coin, which meant a wedge, a corner, or specifically the metal die that was hammered down to stamp a design onto a blank piece of metal. That French word descended from the Latin cuneus, meaning literally a wedge, the same root that gives us the geometric word cuneiform for wedge-shaped writing. Because the stamping die did the work of making money, the name of the tool gradually transferred to the stamped metal disc itself, so coin came to mean the money rather than the wedge. From the idea of striking something fresh from a die, English also developed the figurative verb sense of coining a new word or phrase, as though minting it into existence. The plain four-letter spelling hides this history, and the only real trap is the oi vowel, which writers occasionally muddle.
How the word is built
- coin (from Old French coin: a wedge or die used to stamp money)
Fix your spelling for good.
Spelling Garden finds the words you personally get wrong, plants them in a garden, and brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.
Just five minutes a day is all it takes to fix your spelling.