From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcurrencycur‧ren‧cy /ˈkʌrənsi $ ˈkɜːr-/ ●●○ W3 AWL noun (plural currencies) 1 PEC[countable, uncountable] the system or type of money that a country uses The bank can supply you with foreign currency. The euro is the single currency for 12 of the European Union’s 15 member states. The local currency is the Swiss franc. → hard currency► see thesaurus at money2 [uncountable]USE something the state of being accepted or used by a lot of people The argument has received wide currency. Marxism began to gain currency. The idea was common currency in European political life.COLLOCATIONSADJECTIVES/NOUN + currencyforeign currency (=the type of money that other countries use)You can buy foreign currency at the post office.the local/national currency (=the type of money that a particular country uses)The local currency of Zambia is the 'kwacha'.a single currency (=one currency for the countries in Europe)Britain does not use the single currency.a hard/strong currency (=currency from a country with a strong economy)They accept American dollars and other hard currencies.weak (=from a country with a weak economy)The fund was set up to support weak currencies.stable (=not likely to rise or fall suddenly)The government want to maintain a stable currency.verbschange/convert currency (=change money from one currency to another)There’s usually a charge for converting currencies.devalue the currency (=reduce the value of a country’s money in relation to other currencies)The Finance Minister was forced to devalue the currency.a currency rises/falls (=it goes up or down in relation to other currencies)The currency fell from 144 to the dollar twelve months ago to 812.currency + NOUNcurrency exchange (=the process of changing from one country’s currency to another)Banks make good profits on currency exchange.the currency markets (=the financial markets where currencies are bought and sold)the dollar’s recent rise on the currency marketscurrency movements/fluctuations (=changes in the values of currencies)Global trends such as oil prices influence currency movements.
Examples from the Corpus
currency• Bank credit card vouchers and traveller's cheques and foreign currencies are entered on separate paying-in slips.• It earns foreign currency by selling Pitcairn stamps, which used to be popular with collectors.• Local banks give better rates for converting your traveler's checks into foreign currency.• A lot of the food grown in Mexico is exported to earn hard currency.• It is almost as if there is an orchestrated campaign to take hard currency out of the market-place.• We soon got used to using Italian currency.• What's the local currency in Malta?• The minimum balance is US$1,000 or the equivalent in the major currencies and US$3,000 otherwise.• The Euro will eventually replace European national currencies.• One definition is exchanged for another, semantic currency is taken from one discursive economy and converted into the currency of another.• You can argue about the single currency but you can't opt out of the European Single Market.• Investors continued to swap yen for the currencies of nations that offer higher interest rates.• Moreover, the reform process itself is part of the currency of political debate.• The dollar is now the overwhelming world currency.wide currency• Oral tradition was written down and gained a wider currency than ever before.• The idea of time travel enjoys wide currency in 20th century fiction.• This belief gained wide currency among Sinhalese of all social strata in the twentieth century.• Nevertheless the suggestion that structuralism and poststructuralism have denied history is a persuasive one which now has wide currency.• These are key ideas in the dominant ideology of patriarchy which have much wider currency and impact than in penology.• This argument has received wide currency, in part because it again presents Gloucester as the victim of circumstances rather than their manipulator.From Longman Business Dictionarycurrencycur‧ren‧cy /ˈkʌrənsiˈkɜːr-/ (written abbreviation cur) noun (plural currencies)FINANCE1[countable, uncountable] the system or type of money used in a particular countryThe local currency is the rupee.The dollar was lower against European currencies. → see also basket of currencies2[uncountable]ECONOMICS in the US, banknotes and coins, especially when considered as part of the MONEY SUPPLY (=the amount of money in an economy at a particular time)The money supply, essentially the sum of all currency and bank deposits, barely grew in the fourth quarter.Origin currency (1600-1700) Medieval Latin currentia “flowing”, from Latin currere; → CURRENT1 