United Arab Emirate dirham
- noun
:
dirham de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos
- I exchanged my dollars for United Arab Emirate dirhams at the airport.
Examples
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The price of the souvenir was 50 United Arab Emirate dirhams.
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Most shops in Dubai accept payment in United Arab Emirate dirham.
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She exchanged her dollars for United Arab Emirate dirhams at the airport.
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The price is 50 United Arab Emirate dirhams.
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Most shops in Dubai accept payment in United Arab Emirate dirham.
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She exchanged her dollars for United Arab Emirate dirhams at the airport.
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The price of the souvenir was 50 United Arab Emirate dirhams.
Synonyms
1
8.3
A unit of money used in some North African and Middle Eastern countries
Surface Forms
Morphology
united + Arab + emirate + dirham
The phrase is compositionally built from a country designation ('United Arab Emirate(s)') plus a known currency unit ('dirham'), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer it denotes the currency of the United Arab Emirates. This follows a common cross-linguistic pattern (country name + currency), and although the singular form 'Emirate' is slightly nonstandard, that does not prevent a B1 learner from deriving the intended meaning.
Etymology
United Arab Emirate dirham comes from an old coin called the dirham, a small silver coin used for a long time across the Arab world. So the phrase means the country's 'money', and one dirham is made up of 100 small units called 'fils'.