Piastre
//piˈæstɚ// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A coin and unit of currency, originally a Spanish or Spanish-American one worth eight real, later also used (with various values) in the Ottoman Empire and in Cyprus, in the French-speaking parts of Canada, and in French Indochina. historical
"The Silkes, Velvets, Cloth of gold, and Tissue, Pyasters, Chicqueenes and Sultanies, which is gold and silver, they unloaded in foure and twentie houres, was wonderfull [...]."
- 2 100 kurus equal 1 lira in Turkey wordnet
- 3 A form of currency currently used as a subunit in the Middle Eastern and East African countries of Egypt, Jordan (partly including Palestine), Lebanon, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.
- 4 a fractional monetary unit in Egypt and Lebanon and Sudan and Syria wordnet
- 5 A dollar. Louisiana
Example
More examples"The Silkes, Velvets, Cloth of gold, and Tissue, Pyasters, Chicqueenes and Sultanies, which is gold and silver, they unloaded in foure and twentie houres, was wonderfull [...]."
Etymology
From French piastre, from Italian piastra (“plate of wood or metal; coin”), probably from Latin emplastra.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.