What does pennyweight mean?
Definitions for pennyweight
ˈpɛn iˌweɪtpen·ny·weight
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word pennyweight.
Princeton's WordNet
pennyweightnoun
a unit of apothecary weight equal to 24 grains
Wiktionary
pennyweightnoun
A former unit of mass equal to 24 grains, or 1/20th of a troy ounce
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Pennyweightnoun
A weight containing twenty-four grains troy weight.
Etymology: penny and weight.
The Sevil piece of Eight is 1 ½ pennyweight in the pound worse than the English standard, weighs fourteen pennyweight, contains thirteen pennyweight, twenty-one grains and fifteen mites, of which there are twenty in the grain of sterling silver, and is in value forty-three English pence and eleven hundredths of a penny. John Arbuthnot, on Coins.
Wikipedia
Pennyweight
A pennyweight (dwt) is a unit of mass equal to 24 grains, 1⁄20 of a troy ounce, 1⁄240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams. It is abbreviated dwt, d standing for denarius – (an ancient Roman coin), and later used as the symbol of an old British penny (see £sd).
Webster Dictionary
Pennyweightnoun
a troy weight containing twenty-four grains, or the twentieth part of an ounce; as, a pennyweight of gold or of arsenic. It was anciently the weight of a silver penny, whence the name
Wikidata
Pennyweight
A pennyweight is a unit of mass that is equal to 24 grains, ¹⁄20 of a troy ounce, ¹⁄240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grammes. In the Middle Ages, a British penny's weight was literally, as well as monetarily, ¹⁄20 of an ounce and ¹⁄240 of a pound of sterling silver. At the time, the pound in use was the Tower pound. The medieval English pennyweight was thus equal to 32 Tower grains. When Troy weights replaced Tower weights in 1527, the Troy weights were defined in such a way that the old Tower pound came out to exactly 5400 Troy grains, the Tower pennyweight 22¹⁄2 Troy grains. After 1527, the English pennyweight was the Troy pennyweight. The Troy pound and the pennyweight lost their official status in the United Kingdom in the Weights and Measures Act of 1878; only the Troy ounce and its decimal subdivisions remained official. The Troy ounce enjoys a specific legal exemption from metrication in the UK. The pennyweight is the common weight used in the valuation and measurement of precious metals. Jewelers use the pennyweight in calculating the amount and cost of precious metals used in fabricating or casting jewellery. Similarly, dentists and dental labs still use the pennyweight as the measure of precious metals in dental crowns and inlays.
Etymology and Origins
Pennyweight
Anciently, before standard weights came into use, the weight of a Norman silver penny.
Matched Categories
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of pennyweight in Chaldean Numerology is: 3
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of pennyweight in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
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"pennyweight." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/pennyweight>.
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