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Glite Dictionary
🪙 A silver coin 🌾 A whole grain
groat

groat

1 9.9
An old English silver coin worth four pennies
  • noun
  • /ɡroʊt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : groat
  • In medieval markets, a loaf of bread cost about two groats.

Examples

  • Once her brother, rest his soul, was safely underground, Agnes would be free to run the household exactly as she wished, without the wearying necessity to beg for every groat.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • "We have to do something quickly, Mama, before she spends his last groat!"

    Fiction book (1991)

  • A penny, a groat, anything you can spare.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Five groats a head, my Lord.

    Cry of the Banshee (1970)

  • She cost me 20 groats

    Beowulf (2007)

  • He found a groat in the bottom of his old coin purse.

  • During the fair, he saved up five groats to buy a new pair of boots.

Synonyms

fourpence
vsgroat
  • Archaic
1 9.9

An old English coin worth four pennies used before Britain changed to decimal money

refers to the same value but specifically used between the 13th and 19th centuries

Surface Forms

groat singular
groats plural

Etymology

Groat for the old coin comes from an old Dutch word groot, which means 'large' and has the same idea as the English word 'great'. It was called that because it was a 'large' silver coin worth four pennies, so the name shows its value.