Word.ws English Dictionary

red cent

red cent noun: a copper penny.

Noun

red cent (plural red cents)

  1. (US) A copper penny.
  2. (US, colloquial) A very small amount of money.
    • I wouldn't pay one red cent for a ticket.
    • Snorkey. But I ain't got two cents. What's a fellow to do if he hasn't got a red?1867, Augustin Daly, Under the Gaslight, Act III, Scene 2, page 28

Examples of red cent in a sentence

  • We're begging, damn near down on our knees, and not getting one red cent.1989 December 10, John Zeh, quoting Tony Allen, “AIDS Groups' Execs Arrested In D.C.”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 22, page 1:
  • My dad said he wasn't going to pay the bastards ten red cents.2011, Jann Arden, Falling Backwards: A Memoir, page 158:

Forms of red cent

pluralred cents

Origin of red cent

Probably from the color of the copper from which the coin was minted. Prior to 1864, a brighter nickel-based cent was used, often called the white cent. It is also possible that the red originally referred to the obverse bearing an Indian head stamp. See Indian Head cent.

Questions about red cent

What does red cent mean?
Red cent means a copper penny.
How do you use red cent in a sentence?
We're begging, damn near down on our knees, and not getting one red cent.
What part of speech is red cent?
Red cent is a noun.
What is the plural of red cent?
The plural of red cent is red cents.

Words near red cent in the dictionary

  1. red caviar
  2. red cedar
  3. red cedars
  4. red cell
  5. red cells
  6. red cent
  7. Red Centre
  8. red cents
  9. red chalk
  10. red chamber
  11. red chickweed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: red cent (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “red cent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/red_cent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.