Word.ws English Dictionary

the penny drops

the penny drops phrase: understanding is reached; one comprehends.

Phrase

the penny drops

  1. (UK, informal) Understanding is reached; one comprehends.
    • The penny dropped as Fred realised he had been conned.
    • Suddenly various pennies began to drop; now I understood obscure remarks that had been made in my presence by the Ryans, or by the nuns at school, or by Old Brigid or Tommy's foster-mother.1979, Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels, page 56

the penny drops meaning in Persian

the penny drops in Persian

understanding is reached, one comprehends
دو هزازش جا افتاد meaning "his(/her) two thousand dropped"

Questions about the penny drops

What does the penny drops mean?
The penny drops means understanding is reached; one comprehends.
What is the penny drops in Persian?
The penny drops in Persian is دو هزازش جا افتاد meaning "his(/her) two thousand dropped". See The penny drops meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is the penny drops?
The penny drops is a phrase.

Words near the penny drops in the dictionary

  1. the party is over
  2. The Pas
  3. the past has a vote, not a veto
  4. The Patch
  5. the pen is mightier than the sword
  6. the penny drops
  7. the perfect is the enemy of the good
  8. The Pilliga
  9. The Pinnacles
  10. the Pips
  11. the piss out of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the penny drops (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-the penny drops.wav.

Cite this entry: “the penny drops.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_penny_drops. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.