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centavo

centavo

1 7.9
A small coin worth one hundredth of a peso or other money
  • noun
  • /sɛnˈtɑːvoʊ/
  • US
: centavo
  • I only need a few centavos to buy some candy.

Examples

  • In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, for example, the province of Santiago del Estero sold 46 million hectares for a half-centavo each.

    Academic text (2000)
  • One-twentieth costs you only 20 centavos.

  • I swear, it will leave me without a centavo.

  • Come on, mister, only 50 centavos.

  • The cots are only 50 centavos a night.

  • If that happens, she asks them for money, a dollar, even though at the time of our story it would have been only twenty-five centavos.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • The old skinflint offered eighty centavos for it, which I had no recourse but to accept.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Cubans receive a bar of soap every six months from the government, at a price of 20 Cuban centavos each, when there is soap to be had.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Unlike Andrea and Luisa, Carmen had no intention of spending a centavo of her money on a man; rather, she saved it all to build a house in Santo Domingo.

    Academic text (2004)
  • The price of the bus ticket is 15 centavos in this country.

Synonyms

cent
vscentavo
664 1.0

A small coin worth one hundredth of a dollar

is the same concept but used under different local names
centime
vscentavo
1 7.6

A small coin equal to one hundredth of a franc used in French-speaking countries

is the same idea but used mainly in French language areas
centesimo
vscentavo
1 9.9

A small coin equal to one hundredth of a country's currency, used in countries like Panama and Uruguay

is similar but appears in different Latin American states and the Philippines
centimo
vscentavo
9.4

A coin worth one hundredth of the main unit of money in some countries

is used the same way but in other Latin American countries and the Philippines
Haitian centime
vscentavo
9.9

A small money unit or coin in Haiti equal to one hundredth of a gourde

is the same unit but used across multiple countries not only Haiti
centas
vscentavo
  • Archaic
9.9

A former Lithuanian coin equal to one hundredth of a litas

is the same subunit type but current in other nations

Surface Forms

centavo singular
centavos plural

Etymology

Centavo comes from Spanish and Portuguese and is built from cent- meaning 'hundred', the same root you see in cent and century. So a centavo is a small coin that is one 'out of a hundred' of the main money unit, which is why it is a hundredth part of a peso or other currency.