paisa

1 9.4

A small unit of money worth one hundredth of the main currency in some South Asian countries

noun
/ˈpaɪsə/

Indian

: paisa

The penny, or rather the paisa, finally dropped in the major financial crisis of 1991, which forced the government to let sweeping dogmas die and adopt new policies.

Examples

To buy that snack, you only need to spend ten paisa.
When you did not have a single paisa with you?

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (2000)
Eight years of a slave's life, a bare month under the voting age, and not a paisa to my name.

Fiction book (1994)
This is the absolute best place where you can market your real estate services without spending a single paisa, or we can say without opening your wallet; it's totally free.

Blog text (18)
The paisas, man, they're giving us great competition, you know?

The Tax Collector (2020)
Not a paisa in wages, three meals a day for ten hours of work, and on top of it a maisthri whose brains are beginning to rot.

Fiction book (1994)
I found a few paisa in my pocket that I didn't know I had.
In the market, everything can be purchased for as little as five paisa.

Compounds

paisa vasool

Indian

9.9

Gives good value for the money paid

Surface Forms

paisa singular

paisas plural

Etymology

Paisa comes from South Asian languages like Hindi and Urdu, where paisā meant a small coin or 'a small part'. Think of paisa as a 'piece' of a rupee (or other main money unit); today it usually equals one hundredth of that unit.