What does "escudo" mean?

The state currency formerly used in Portugal, divided into 100 centavos. The symbol is $ which is positioned between the escudos & centavos, 2$50.

Escudo

Common synonyms include: cape verde escudo, cape verde escudo, portuguese escudo, portuguese escudo.

//ɪˈskuːdəʊ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The state currency formerly used in Portugal, divided into 100 centavos. The symbol is $ which is positioned between the escudos & centavos, 2$50.
2
the basic unit of money on Cape Verde; equal to 100 centavos wordnet
3
The currency formerly used in Chile and replaced by the Peso.
4
formerly the basic monetary unit of Portugal; equal to 100 centavo wordnet
5
The current currency of Cape Verde.

From Portuguese escudo (“shield”). Doublet of scutum, scute, écu, and scudo.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.