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What Are Some Slang Terms for Money in the United States?

By Sherry Holetzky
Updated May 16, 2024
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In the United States, there are many commonly used slang terms for money. Perhaps the most common is the term "bucks" as a reference for US Dollars. Other common slang terms for dollars include "cash," "dough," "moolah" and "smackers." There are various other slang terms for money as well, some of which are general terms and others that are specific to certain denominations of money.

Slang Terms for Paper Bills

Many slang terms denote paper bills but don’t distinguish an amount. In addition to the aforementioned terms, the slang terms "clams," "greenbacks" and "dead presidents" refer to paper bills. The latter term based on the fact that pictures of past U.S. presidents appear on the face of many bills.

Not all bills feature a president, however. The $100 USD bill, for example, features Benjamin Franklin. These bills are often called "Benjamins." Other slang terms for $100 USD bills include "bills," "C-notes" or simply "C's," which is a reference to the Roman numeral for 100.

Another letter used in reference to a specific monetary denomination is "K," which stands for thousands. If someone says, "I paid 5K," for example, it means that he or she paid $5,000 USD. "A grand" is another common slang term for money, and means $1,000 USD.

Many slang terms for money are used in reference to smaller denominations of paper bills. A $5 USD bill is sometimes called a "fiver" or a "fin." A $10 USD bill can be referred to as a "sawbuck." The number of US Dollars for any amount of money is often referred to as "bones," such as the term "50 bones" referring to $50 USD. "Bucks" is used in the same way, so "50 bucks" also would equal $50 USD.

Slang Terms for Coins

There are even slang terms for money that are used to describe US coins. "Two bits" equals 25 cents, or one quarter. A potentially confusing aspect of slang terms for money is that the names of coins are often used as slang terms for bill amounts. For example, a "nickel" might be used to refer to $5 USD, and a "dime" might refer to $10 USD. So the next time you're making list of your money savings, consider using these slangs for convenience. They should make the task easier and less time consuming than it normally is.

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Discussion Comments

By anon995238 — On Apr 13, 2016

A dime is $1000. It is pretty common in sports betting or gambling.

By anon986727 — On Jan 27, 2015

$100: a honeybee

By anon940583 — On Mar 19, 2014

"grease my palm" = gimme (give me) money

anon258464 correctly used the lower case "k" as = 1,000. Large "K" is misused so often that it is essentially interchangeable in the non-science, non-tech world.

For science and technology: K = degrees kelvin, k = 1000 as a unit-prefix.

By anon929877 — On Feb 03, 2014

What are the latest terms in the US to say $10,000 or $20,000?

By anon334296 — On May 11, 2013

Any one heard of the term "fence post" when referring to money?

By anon309221 — On Dec 15, 2012

Cash, moolah, jack, dollas OR dollars, gwop, guac, guapo, bucks, greenbacks, paper, semolians, dub, dead presidents, stack(s), rack(s), hundo, hunge, hunnit, yard, fiver, tener, single(s), cheese, chedder *or* chedda, clams, cashola, bones, benjamin, benji, coin, dub, fitty, dime, nickel, tension, scrilla, big faces, grand(s), dough, bread, scratch, money, guacamole', lettuce, mail, cabbage, smackers, smackeroonies, chips,

c-note(s), g-note(s), bone(s), greens, wad, stash, cream, loot, bacon, duckets...

By anon301503 — On Nov 04, 2012

100 Dollar Bill - Cow. 50 Dollar Bill - Calf.

100 Dollar Bill and a 50 Dollar Bill together - Cow and a Calf.

By anon299412 — On Oct 25, 2012

Moolah, Green, Cash, Dough, are the only USA slang terms I've heard. I doubt if "cash" is even considered a slang term anymore.

By anon285989 — On Aug 18, 2012

Carney speak = fin, sawbuck, double, half-yard, yard, 5 spot when we had a 500 dollar bill, G note 1000 dollar bill. --Trooper John

By anon279813 — On Jul 14, 2012

$100-Hundie, heard this in Midwest casinos, as in "I made Five hundie", "or gimme a hundie."

A collection of loose change: smash. I read this in the book Junkie by William Burroughs.

$20: Twamp, initially referred to an amount of marijuana, now some use it to indicate Jackson bills.

Awesome article.

By anon268779 — On May 15, 2012

Since the advent of ATMs: $20 bill = "SMU" = "Standard Monetary Unit" because USA ATMs only distribute 20-dollar bills, unlike machines in most countries that give multiple denominations.

"SMU" is most commonly used by techies and geeks who use a lot of TLAs in their work and studies (TLA = three letter acronym).

By anon266531 — On May 06, 2012

What's a Celtic?

By anon258464 — On Apr 02, 2012

So does that mean the hundred k is equal to hundred grand, because k and grand both refer to thousand.

By anon198775 — On Jul 20, 2011

I absolutely enjoyed this article! I haven't heard the term "two bits" since my grandmother used it over 40 years ago. Nobody uses it today, and as for the poster above who used "scratch", that term was recently used in the movie Horrible Bosses. All very interesting.

By anon193181 — On Jul 04, 2011

Thank you for sharing this information. I'm not a native english speaker, so sometimes it gets very difficult to find the meaning of this slang terminology. Best.

By anon188204 — On Jun 20, 2011

you guys forgot: bread and jack, jingle, bone, cheddar, greens, nuggets, plums, wad, wedge, stash, cabbage, loot, pics of dead presidents, hog, bacon.

By anon179261 — On May 23, 2011

I had always heard of a $20 called a snap.

By anon165947 — On Apr 06, 2011

On the west coast:

1 - no one cares

5 - 5

10 - dime

20 - dub

50- 50

100- c-note, bill

1,000- stack

10,000 rack

By anon156100 — On Feb 25, 2011

$100 - also referred to as a barrel. $200 = two barrels.

By anon149805 — On Feb 05, 2011

1-singypoo

5-mija

10-tenant

20-bentley

50-black

100- Cocollo bait

1000-register

10000-bucket

the correct term is gwap as a reference to guacamole.

By anon147237 — On Jan 28, 2011

What's a somolian and why is it used to refer to dollars?

By anon133580 — On Dec 11, 2010

"Large" for $1,000.

Said this way (outta one side of your mouth): "laaaage..." "That mope owes Joey 50 large. He's history."

By anon133372 — On Dec 10, 2010

$20 Yuppie Food Stamp.

By anon132687 — On Dec 07, 2010

a 1,000 dollars is called a stack so a couple of stacks would be 2,000 dollars. Five stacks = 5,000 and so forth. Paper = money.

By anon125889 — On Nov 10, 2010

chedda, skrilla, duckets, moolah, cash, euros, dough, bacon, dollas, bucks ummmmm loot, bills, Benjamins, Bread, paper, Kala, big faces, gwap, dub, smackaroos. I think that about covers everything!

By anon110043 — On Sep 10, 2010

What is the correct spelling for guitus, gedus (rhymes with cheetus)

By anon97293 — On Jul 19, 2010

$100 = A Baby Maker

By anon96552 — On Jul 16, 2010

Scrilla, paper, kala, big faces

By anon94434 — On Jul 08, 2010

"Nickel and dime" means to pay a lot but in small increments, as in "The hotel rooms are cheap, but they nickel and dime you with extra charges." This has nothing to do with $5 or $10.

By anon88754 — On Jun 07, 2010

it's not guap, or gwap. it's guac, as in short for guacamole, because it's green. know your slang!

By anon85541 — On May 20, 2010

1 dollar = single

5 = feva

10 = tension

20 = dub

50 = fitty

100 dollar = hun-dun

1000 = bundle

all money can be greenbacks, bank, bread.

By anon79240 — On Apr 21, 2010

It's: 1 single

5 fin

10 sawbuck

20 dub

50 worker bee

100 bill

By anon73814 — On Mar 29, 2010

5 fin

10 sawbuck

20 Jackson

50 half yard

100 Benjamin

500 nickel

1000 dime

By anon67293 — On Feb 24, 2010

Scratch.

By anon63145 — On Jan 30, 2010

Below - it is not "GUAP" it is "GWAP". The term is an acronym for "George Washington on Paper" (or, dollars).

By anon58924 — On Jan 05, 2010

How about worthless? The FED is dismantling our economy.

By anon57210 — On Dec 21, 2009

some other words to describe U.S. currency.' Cheddah.' = Dollars. Government Cheese =Social Security checks, Welfare Checks, any form of entitlement money dispensed by the U.S Government. Earnings from work in the form of a paycheck on Friday is "Today the Eagle S*". although small pay checks may be spoken this way: "Today the Eagle Poops."

By anon53384 — On Nov 20, 2009

how do you say "gedus?" or how about some trim

By anon51548 — On Nov 06, 2009

A hundge is what we call $100.00. or like $300 is three hundge.

By anon51282 — On Nov 04, 2009

Smackeroos' i.e. "I'll give you 100 smackaroos' to paint my fence."

By anon50143 — On Oct 26, 2009

100 Dollars- a frog

By anon47605 — On Oct 06, 2009

To answer that last question moolah is simply just another term for money.

By anon47172 — On Oct 02, 2009

"K" stands for "Kilo", a thousand. Also, the actual phrase is "two cents' worth", not just "two cents'"; that's just more of the current practice of leaving out the preposition in colloquialisms - p.e., "hang", not "hang out", "pumped", not "pumped up", etc.

By anon38740 — On Jul 28, 2009

A common term from the 20's and 30's for the 100 dollar bill was "honey bee". That also spawned the slang "worker bee" for a 50 dollar bill.

By anon29980 — On Apr 12, 2009

What about 'paper'?

It's 'guap' not 'quap' and I think that just refers to a large amount of cash.

By anon27867 — On Mar 07, 2009

Common slang terms for $20 include "double Sawbuck" and "Twamp".

By anon10034 — On Mar 18, 2008

Thanks for the additions!

By anon9857 — On Mar 15, 2008

1 Dollar Bill - Buck

100 Dollar Bill - Bill

1000 Dollars/Bill - 'G' (Grand)

10,000 Dollars - Dime

100,000 Dollars - Quap

-Jason,Cleveland,Ohio

By velikaribat — On Feb 15, 2008

How about moolah?

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