Groat
name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Hulled grain, chiefly hulled oats. countable, in-plural, uncountable
- 2 Any of various old coins of England and Scotland. archaic, historical
"The Widdow that hath but a pan of braſſe, And ſcarſe a houſe to hide her head, Sometimes no penny to buy her bread, Muſt pay her Landlord many a groat, Or twil be puld out of her throat:"
- 3 a former English silver coin worth four pennies wordnet
- 4 Any of various old coins of England and Scotland.; Any unit of currency worth four pence. archaic, historical
- 5 Any of various old coins of England and Scotland.; A historical English coin representing such a unit: a silver coin worth four English pennies, still minted as one of the set of Maundy coins. archaic, historical
"The needy groom, that never finger'd groat, Would make a miracle of thus much coin …"
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- 6 A proverbial small sum; a whit or jot.
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"The seed of the oat plant is called a groat."
Etymology
From Middle English grot, from Old English grot, from Proto-West Germanic *grot, from Proto-Germanic *grutą, related to *greutą. More at grit, grout.
Possibly from Middle Dutch groot, the Old French gros Tournois (“a coin of Tours”), gros being from Medieval Latin denarius grossus (“large coin”). Related to German Groschen.
* As a Scottish surname, nickname from Old Norse grautr (“porridge”). Compare Grout. * Also as a Scottish surname, variant of Grote. * As a German, Dutch and Danish surname, variant of Groth, Groot, Grott, and Grad.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.