paper money
/ˌpeɪpəɹ ˈmʌni/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.97 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A type of joss paper resembling banknotes burnt to venerate the deceased, ancestor spirits, deities, etc.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Moreover, you say that serving Fuh is a profitable service; that if you burn paper money, present offerings, and keep fasts before the face of your god Fuh, he will dissipate calamities, blot out your sins, increase your happiness, and prolong your age!"
- "Tablets in honour of the dead are set up in every house over a sort of family altar; and at certain times flowers are offered and paper-money is burned at these shrines."
- "Tsze Chien means “paper money” – not the real bank notes which are so extensively used in China as money but the make-believe tinsel money which the Chinese burn as part of their religious worship."
- "People had also begun to burn paper money (it was believed that burning transformed it into real money that could be used by the departed souls in hades) instead of placing actual coins in the tombs."
- "“Let’s burn the paper money,” Mai Mai said. She brought out a stack of yellow paper from her pocket – coarse paper with small circles cut in it to represent coins. Longevity lighted the paper money and kowtowed another time."
- "The paper money for the spirits consisted of imitations either of metal coins or of real money, but the latter had different sets of inscriptions and patterns to distinguish it from counterfeit money."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌpeɪpəɹ ˈmʌni/
- British English: /ˌpeɪpə ˈmʌni/