“It’s all about the Benjamins,” sang Puff Daddy. But despite what you may have mistakenly thought, the legendary American rapper wasn’t singing about a good friend named Ben. Nope. Sean John Combs, a.k.a P. Diddy, was kindly explaining a simple truth about our capitalist society: It’s all about the money.
Actually, money is so important that people came up with dozens of ways to talk about it throughout the ages. Emerging in the US, the UK or elsewhere, slang words for money became a huge part of the language we use. But how well do you know them?
Well, luckily for you, we’ve listed the most common nicknames for money to add a playful element to your conversation, your eCommerce website, your news article, the dialogues of your novels—and of course, your next rap hit. Here are 100 slang words and terms for money:
01. Bacon
Perhaps because it is so beloved, money is often referred to as this breakfast treat. Most commonly used as part of the phrase “bring[ing] home the bacon”.
02. Bank
The connection between bank and money needs no explanation. Use it to gossip about your friend’s salary increase: “Since he started working at the bank, Benjamin’s been making bank.”
03. Bankroll
Meant literally to supply money, it can also be used to refer to money itself, like: “I need some bankroll to get my bread business off the ground.”
04. Bean
An archaic term for a dollar; it’s not commonly used any more.
05. Benjamins
This one we covered above. The name references the appearance of founding father Benjamin Franklin on the one-hundred-dollar bill.
06. Benji
A nickname for our dear friend whose mug appears on the $100 bill.
07. Big ones
Like “grand” and “large”, which you’ll see below, each “big one” means $1,000. So if you’re buying a car for 10 big ones, you’re paying $10,000.
08. Bills
Another term with an obvious connection to money, this is most commonly used to refer to one-hundred-dollar bills.
09. Bones
Can be used in exchange for “dollars”, as in: “These grills cost 100 bones.”
10. Boodle
A term for shady cash, like counterfeit, stolen or bribe money.
11. Brass (UK)
This is a Northern British slang term for money, believed to have originated from the region’s scrap dealers scrounging for materials that were valuable, like brass. It’s related to the phrase “Where there's muck, there's brass.”
12. Bread
A synonym for food in general, this has meant money since at least the 19th century. Like bacon, it’s something you “bring in”: “She’s selling bread online in order to bring in the bread.”
13. Bucks
Perhaps the most commonly used slang term for dollars, it is believed to originate from early American colonists who would often trade deerskins, or buckskins.
14. C note
C equals 100 in the Roman numeral system and stands for the latin word centum, which means “a hundred” (and which also originated the word cent). Thus, a C note is a $100 bill.
15. Cabbage
When all those green bills are packed together, don’t they resemble cabbage? Ludacris thinks so: “Hustle real hard, gotta stack that cabbage / I'm addicted to money.”
16. Cake
Even better than bread or dough is a food that has icing and is served at parties.
17. Cash (or cash money)
Perhaps an obvious one, but still useful.
18. Capital
Not necessarily a slang term when employed in a business context, but can also be used as slang to refer to any kind of money, not just capital. Does that make cents? (See what I did there?)
19. Celery
Like cabbage and lettuce, this green veggie also means money. If you don’t believe me, take it from Jeezy, who boasts about a “pocket full of celery” in his 2009 hit “Put On” featuring Kanye West.
20. Cha-ching
It’s the best sound in the world to some—the cash register completing a sale. It’s also been used as a replacement term for money.
21. Chalupa
This mostly means a deliciously spicy Mexican taco, but is also slang for money.
22. Cheddar
If someone has the cheddar, it means they must be making bank.
23. Cheese
A nickname for money because Americans used to receive cheese as a welfare benefit.
24. Chips
A reference to poker chips, it now just means money.
25. Chump change
This refers to a small amount of money, like the amount of cash a chump would have.
26. Clams
Means “dollars”, as in: “Karen raised my rent by 100 clams.”
27. Cream
This is an acronym of “Cash Rules Everything Around Me” and was popularized by the Wu-Tang Clan in the 90s: “Cash rules everything around me / C.R.E.A.M. / Get the money / Dollar, dollar bill y'all.” The song encouraged listeners to not make the mistake of chasing money by selling drugs.
28. Coin
Looking to borrow money from a friend? Ask her: “Can I borrow some coin?”
29. Dead presidents
American currency acts as a who’s who of dead presidents. (Plus Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, who were never presidents but appear on the $10 and $100 bills, respectively.) Use this term to let people know you’re no sell out, like Eminem.
30. Dime
In the US, a dime is the coin worth ten cents, but the term can be used to mean money or an expense in general. For example, if your employee is sitting on social media instead of working, you can dramatically exclaim: “Not on my dime!”
31. Dinero
Because who doesn’t love the sound of Spanish? Dinero is the Spanish word for “money” and was first popularized in the Old West as early as the mid-19th century.
32. Dollar dollar bill y’all
Okay, this one is mostly an excuse to link to this rap classic from 2009. You’re welcome.
33. Dosh (UK)
A British slang term for money.
34. Dough
Another very commonly used term for money, it’s been around for a while. It likely became common as a branch off from “bread”, but the Oxford Dictionary found the term used as early as 1851, in a Yale publication: “He thinks he will pick his way out of the Society’s embarrassments, provided he can get sufficient dough.”
35. Dubs (or doubles or double sawbuck)
This term means a twenty-dollar bill, so two dubs refers to 40 bucks.
36. Ducats
A gold or silver coin that was used in Europe, mostly in Venice, starting from the Middle Ages.
37. Ducketts
The very American pronunciation of the previous word is used to refer to poker chips—but also money.
38. Fetti
A gross mispronunciation of the Spanish word feria, which in Mexico is used to mean coins. But maybe the term is also the result of the confetti-like image of money pouring from the sky when someone “makes it rain”.
39. Figgas
A hip-hop term to describe the number of figures in an amount of money.
40. Fins
A slang term for five-dollar bills. The source is likely from the German/Yiddish word for five: German—Funf, Yiddish—Finnif.
41. Five spot
A five-dollar bill.
42. Fiver
Another term for the five-dollar bill, as in: “I make about a fiver on each t-shirt I sell.”
43. Folding stuff
This refers to the stuff that folds, i.e. paper money. “I can’t believe you spent so much folding stuff on that lemon of a car.”
44. Franklins
And once again, we are back to our friend Benjamin, who appears on that much-beloved one-hundred-dollar bill.
45. Frogskin
An archaic term for dollar bills, perhaps related to the term “greenback”.
46. Funds
“I’d plan a trip to Hawaii, but I got no funds.”
47. G
Short for “grand”, this refers to $1,000 dollars. Having five G in the bank shouldn’t cause you to worry about cellphone towers, but should result in a celebration for having “dollar dollar bill y’all”. (Not to confuse with G, which is also short for “gangster”, as in “Benjamin Franklin was a real G”.)
48. Gelt
A Yiddish term meaning “gold” and is most commonly used to refer to the money (chocolate or real) given by parents on the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
49. Gold
Does this need any explanation?
50. Gouda
Rapper E-40 coined this term for money in his hit “Gouda”. The slang king then goes on to explain the meaning by using many of the other terms listed here: “The definition of Gouda, what's the definition? / Chalupa, scrilla, scratch, paper, yaper, capital…”
51. Grand
Refers to $1,000 since the mob coined the term (no pun intended) in the early 1900s. Back then $1,000 was a “grand” amount of money, and they wanted to be discreet.
52. Grant
A $50 bill, in reference to President Ulysses S. Grant, whose face is featured. (Speaking of Uly, did you know that the S doesn’t stand for anything?)
53. Grease
If you grease someone’s palm or someone’s pockets, it means you gave them some money, usually as a bribe.
54. Green
A reference to the color of American money. Can be used like in: “I’m all out of green, so I’ll pay you back next week.”
55. Greenbacks
A form of American currency printed in the Civil War. The front of the bill was printed in black while the back was printed in green.
56. Guap
Same pronunciation as gwop, this refers to a large amount of money.
57. Gwala
Another related term to guap and gwop that means a stack of cash, as in: “Grease his pockets with a little gwala.”
58. Gwop
This slang term for money is actually an acronym of “George Washington On Paper”—referring to the first US president, who appears on the one-dollar bill.
59. Hamilton
Even though he wasn’t a president, the Founding Father without a father got a lot farther by being on the ten-dollar bill.
60. Jackson
Not as expensive as a Franklin or a Benjamin, this refers to President Andrew Jackson who appears on the twenty-dollar bill.
61. K
Refers to the prefix kilo, i.e. one thousand. So 500K means $500,000.
62. Large
Similar to grand, this term also refers to $1,000.
63. Lettuce
Like cabbage and celery, this is an old slang term that means “money” or “currency”.
64. Long green
Another slang term for “cash” that references the color and shape of that dollar dollar bill y’all.
65. Loot
Referring to money, you can tell your customer to “Hand over the loot”—but you probably shouldn’t.
66. Lucci
An Italian sounding word that rappers like to use to talk about money, but it’s not Italian for anything so it’s unclear why. (Some people believe it’s slang for lucre.)
67. Lucre
Often used in the phrase filthy lucre to refer to a “shameful gain”, according to Merriam-Webster. While the term has taken on a slang-like connotation, it’s a legit word and is related to lucrative.
68. M
This one can actually be confusing. While M is the Roman numeral for a thousand, when used with money, it usually means a million. So $3M equals $3,000,000.
69. MM (or MN)
Many banks will use this to refer to millions of dollars.
70. Mil
This is another popular abbreviation of million, when talking dollars.
71. Moola (or moolah)
This is another age-old slang term for money, but nobody seems to really know where it originated. Merriam-Webster says the word was first used to mean money in 1936.
72. Nickel
The metal that makes up a crucial element of the Earth’s core is also used to make five-cent coins. Used as slang, this term can mean $5 or $500 worth of something—particularly when talking about gambling or drugs.
73. Nuggets
A term for money that probably refers to gold nuggets, but may as well refer to the many other valuable things that come in the form of nuggets: chicken, wisdom, truth, Denver’s basketball team, etc.
74. Ones
Means one-dollar bills. If you’re all out of ones, you’ll need to ask for change to buy a can of coke from the machine.
75. Paper
The material used to print that dollar dollar bill y’all. Chasin’ that paper is just a part of “living your life”, according to this 2008 classic by Rihanna and T.I.
76. Pesos
The official currency of Mexico can be used in American slang to refer to dollars as well.
78. Quid (UK)
The origin of this slang term for the British pound (or sterling) is uncertain, but it’s been around since the late 1600s, according to Merriam-Webster.
79. Rack
$1,000 or more in cash.
80. Resources
Use it to sound fancy but also street: “Ain’t got the resources to pay for that activity at the moment.”
81. Riches
An especially useful word to refer to money when you’re trying to sound like you have lots of it. Technically speaking, a gorgeous example of a synecdoche.
82. Salad
If lettuce, cabbage, celery and beans all mean money, you might as well put it all together and dress it.
83. Sawbucks
A ten-dollar bill. The source of this term comes from the sawhorse that resembles the Roman numeral X (for “10”) that was found on the back of the 10-dollar bill. The word then evolved to sawbuck because “buck” means “dollar”.
84. Scratch
This word has been used to mean money since the beginning of the 20th century, but we don’t seem to know why. Some believe it’s a reference to the phrase “starting from scratch” to imply that everything starts with money.
84. Shekels
A biblical currency that is also used presently in Israel. The word shekel is rooted in the Hebrew term for “weight”.
85. Simoleon
Slang for “dollar” associated with old-timey American gangsters.
86. Skrilla (or scrilla or scrill)
The origin of this term to mean money or cash is also unknown, but it was used in rap music starting in the 1990s.
87. Smackers
An East Coast way of saying dollars, especially if you’re a 60+ year-old man betting on a football game: “I’ll bet ya 100 smackers that the Jets find a way to lose this one.” It usually refers to enough cash to smack someone in the face with.
88. Spondulix
A 19th-century term for money, you can also spell it spondulicks, spondoolicks, spondulacks, spondulics, and spondoolics. Be really hip and refer to it as spondoolies.
89. Stacks
Similar to racks, this term also means $1,000. “I had to get my car fixed and it cost me 3 stacks.”
90. Stash
Refers mostly to money you have hidden away.
91. Tamales
Nobody really uses this term anymore, but it was a common term to mean dollars.
92. Ten spot
A ten-dollar bill.
93. Tender
From the longer (and more boring sounding) term legal tender.
94. Tenners
Ten-dollar bills, as in: “Can I get two tenners for one of these dubs?”
95. Treasure
This is an especially useful term for money if you’re a pirate.
96. Wad
A bunch of cash, enough that you can roll it up into a wad.
97. Wampum
Polished shells worn by Native Americans and sometimes used as a form of currency. The term was popular as slang for money for a while, but now is mostly used to refer to marijuana.
98. Wonga (UK)
A Romani word that means “coal”, which was another term used by Brits to refer to money.
99. Yaper
Usually refers to drug money.
100. Yard
Usually refers to $100, but apparently can also be used to mean $1 billion—just in case that’s an amount of money you and your friends chat about.
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FAQs
What is slang for $1000 bill? ›
In slang, a thousand dollars may also be referred to as a "grand" or "G", "K" (as in kilo), or less commonly a "stack", a "bozo", as well as a "band" .
What is a 1920s slang term for money? ›Mazuma: Cash, money, cheddar, greenbacks, what have you. Don't take any wooden nickels: If you want to tell a friend to not doing anything stupid, but if you want to do it in a cool, 1920s slang way, tell them not to take any wooden nickels.
What are slang words for 100? ›"C-note" is slang for a $100 bill. The term was derived from the Roman numeral "C" for 100. The $100 bill once had a capital "C" in its upper-left corner.
What is $10 bill slang? ›Sawbuck is an old-fashioned slang term for a $10 bill. The phrase reportedly reflects the fact that the Roman numeral X, which resembles a wooden sawbuck, was traditionally used on U.S. $10 banknotes to denote the number 10.
What is slang for $50 bill? ›A fifty-dollar note is also known colloquially as a "pineapple" or the "Big Pineapple" because of its yellow colour. The $100 note is currently green and is known colloquially as an "avocado" or "green tree frog", but between 1984 and 1996 it was grey, and was called a grey nurse (a type of shark).
What is the street slang for $100? ›"C-note" is slang for a $100 bill. The term was derived from the Roman numeral "C" for 100. The $100 bill once had a capital "C" in its upper-left corner.
What is $10000 slang? ›07. Big ones. Like “grand” and “large”, which you'll see below, each “big one” means $1,000. So if you're buying a car for 10 big ones, you're paying $10,000.
What does 3 bills mean in slang? ›Adjective. phony as a three-dollar bill (not comparable) (simile, set phrase) Extremely phony; fake; dishonest; completely bogus.
What are pennies slang? ›If someone says that they are going to spend a penny, they mean that they are going to go to the toilet.
What is dirty money slang? ›Noun. dirty money (uncountable) (idiomatic) Money that is illegally gained, illegally transferred or illegally utilized, especially money gained through forgery, bribery, prostitution, money laundering, or theft.
What are nickels slang? ›
Nickel is a slang term for “five” of anything, especially a small bag of drugs costing five dollars or five-year prison sentence.
What is the 50 slang? ›Enduring '50s Slang Terms
For example, some people still say they're “having a blast,” “getting their kicks,” “on cloud 9,” “catching a flick,” “making out,” working a “gig,” and calling “dibs.” Then there's “nerd,” “spaz,” “pad” (your home), “the heat,” “no sweat,” “hip,” and lots more.
Proper noun
Rule 63. (Internet slang, fandom slang, informal) The proposition that it is possible to find genderswapped versions of every fictional character, especially as fan art on the internet.
10-4 is an affirmative signal: it means “OK.” The ten-codes are credited to Illinois State Police Communications Director Charles Hopper who created them between 1937–40 for use in radio communications among cops. Chase's Calendar. @ChasesCalendar. · Follow.
Why is 25 called a pony? ›The 25 rupee note has a pony on it. Therefore when the British soldiers got back from India they adopted this term with pounds.
Why is 20 called a dub? ›Dub for double was slang for $20 (double ten) in the 1940s and for a $20 worth of a drug in the 2010s, as seen in some hip-hop lyrics. Speaking of drugs, dub has named a cigarette in the 1970s and then a marijuana joint in the 1990s, perhaps as a form of doobie.
What do gangsters call money? ›wads, rolls of cash, dollars, paper money. 'Soldier', 'Souljah'
What is a 99 slang? ›Summary of Key Points. "Parent Stopped Watching (see also 9)" is the most common definition for 99 on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Why is a $5 bill called a fin? ›Fin is for Five. Give your grandparents a great surprise by calling a $5 bill a “fin”. This was the dubbed nickname for the note in the 19th and early 20th century; a name that comes from the German/Yiddish language. In Yiddish, “fin” means “five”.
What is a 560 in slang? ›560 is a Xhosa slang term for main chick or the main partner. I can't date you cause you know I have a 560. by: MXhosa, 15 May 2021.
What is a 403 slang? ›
Originally a technical term for " Deny Access To" (which is a return code seen on a Web page to indicate you don't have the necessary permission to access the server), in slang to say "403" is to imply someone is out of their league, as in "Don't even go there, she's 403, dude." It can also refer to being punished for ...
How much is a dime in street slang? ›When it comes to a term like dime, only one thing is consistent: the amount you're paying. A dime is basically ten dollars worth of weed.
What does 50 racks mean? ›Racks means money in thousands.
The term “Racks” has been used by Migos, Young Thug, Joe Trufant, Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Pump, and many more rappers.
"Pay pigs" are generally men who enjoy the humiliation of sending women money without getting anything in return. Pay pigs worship their findoms — the dominating women — by paying them and gaining gratification from the exchange.
Who is on the $4 bill? ›The original $4 bills pictured the Marquess of Lorne, the fourth Governor General of Canada. In 1900, the design of the bill changed to feature portraits of Lord Minto, the eighth Governor General, and his wife.
What is a 2 man slang? ›: managed or controlled by only two individuals.
What is a dime in slang? ›Dime is still used as a teenage slang synonym for a beautiful woman. This stems from the 1979 movie ''10,'' starring Bo Derek, and is rooted in ''On a scale from 1 to 10, she's a 10. '' She is now a dime.
What is slang for 25 cents? ›Two bits became an informal way of referring to the value of the 25-cent coin known as the quarter.
What is shilling slang? ›A shill is a hustler or con-person who tries to convince other people to buy something or think something is great (shilling). The shill has ulterior motives for their actions, usually because they are the actual seller or have something to gain if the product sells well.
What does pee money mean? ›Mostly in return we got the 'Pee' (being the official pronunciation of the abbreviation: p for new pence.)
What is black money one word? ›
money that is earned illegally, or on which the necessary tax is not paid.
What is a money bag slang? ›moneybags. a very wealthy or extravagant person.
What's a toonie slang? ›too·nie ˈtü-nē plural toonies. Canada, informal. : a coin worth two Canadian dollars.
What is a four twenty in slang? ›420 is a slang term (or a kind of code word) referring to marijuana or marijuana use. Due to this association, 420 is also used as the name of an unofficial holiday that marijuana enthusiasts celebrate by using marijuana.
What is a mint slang? ›According to the highest-rated UrbanDictionary definition on the term, “mint” is used to describe when something cool happens (because mints make your mouth cool, get it?). But in practice, the kids are saying it ironically, to highlight when something truly terrible has happened, or to roast their friends.
What does 1174 mean in slang? ›12 internet, texting acronyms every parent should know
Here's a good example: "1174." Do you know what "1174" stands for? Neither did I. It apparently means "party location" (yeah, I don't know why either).
12 is a slang term for police or any law enforcement officials of uncertain origin. Possible sources include the police radio code "10-12" and the 1968 TV show Adam-12, which followed two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and their patrol car, "1-Adam-12."
What does 47 mean in slang? ›The dictionary contains more than 450 entries, including: (1) general gang terms, such as "47," which alerts others that the police are coming; (2) geographically specific terms, such as "187," the California penal code number for "murder"; (3) gang-specific terms, e.g., "Blue Hats," a term describing Crips and their ...
What is a 302 slang? ›Forcing someone to get help for a mental problem is possible, but it's not easy. In Pennsylvania, the slang for involuntary hospitalization, or forcing someone to get mental-health treatment, is "302," named for a section of the Pennsylvania Mental Health Procedures Act of 1976.
What is Rule 69? ›The Rule of 69 is used to estimate the amount of time it will take for an investment to double, assuming continuously compounded interest. The calculation is to divide 69 by the rate of return for an investment and then add 0.35 to the result.
What does 459 mean in slang? ›
459 is code for "I love you." The numbers correspond with the initials I-L-Y on a telephone keypad.
What does 305 mean in slang? ›Miami is the 305 because that's the city's original area code. Everybody who was anybody in Miami had a 305 number. Flipper had a 305 number even though he couldn't technically dial because, you know, flippers. Scarface had one, too.
What does 909 mean in slang? ›What does 909 mean? 909 is a telephone area code that covers the general area around the city of San Bernardino. Some residents use 909 to rep their hometown while Californians outside the area often use 909 to slur San Bernardino people as white trash.
What does 73 mean? ›At the end of a contact with a friend, most hams will call out a hearty “73.” It's so popular that you may see ham radio operators sign “73” at the bottom of an email or even social media post. The formal definition of 73 is “Best Regards” – it's a nice way to say goodbye that is unique to amateur radio.
What is slang for a $20 bill? ›In the United States, a twenty dollar bill is also called a Jackson, a dub, or a double sawbuck.
What does 🗿 mean in slang? ›By placing the stone face emoji at the end of a message, you're saying in a dry and deadpan tone, “I'm annoyed and over it.” You can also just comment a series of 🗿 if you're too annoyed to care.