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Glite Dictionary
Zambian kwacha

Zambian kwacha

8.2
The main money used in Zambia, equal to 100 ngwee
  • noun
translation icon : kwacha zambiano
  • When visiting Zambia, it's important to know that the Zambian kwacha is the country's official currency.

Examples

  • The price of a meal in Lusaka is usually set at around 50 Zambian kwacha.

  • Travelers to Zambia often exchange their money for Zambian kwacha to pay for local goods and services.

  • British pounds, Russian rubles, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and even that unlikely monetary unit, the Zambian kwacha, any one of these will be used for payments rather than giving up a gold coin.

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Synonyms

kwacha
vsZambian kwacha
1 9.9

The unit of money used in Zambia

is the form that explicitly adds the country's name

Surface Forms

Zambian kwacha singular
Zambian kwachas plural

Morphology

Zambian + kwacha

The phrase is fully compositional: 'Zambian' specifies national origin and 'kwacha' names the monetary unit, so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it refers to the currency of Zambia. This adjective+noun pattern (nationality + currency) is cross-linguistically common and therefore immediately comprehensible to B1 learners who know the constituents.

Etymology

Zambian kwacha gets its name from a local word meaning 'dawn' or 'new day'. When Zambia became an independent country it chose kwacha as the name for its money to show a fresh start, so today Zambian kwacha means the country's unit of money.