Phrase guide

ten a penny

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

So common as to be practically or almost worthless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, idiomatic, not-comparable

Examples

  • Near-synonyms: not worth a dime; see also Thesaurus:worthless
  • People with your skills are ten a penny these days.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: a dime a dozen, two a penny, average, basic, bog-standard, common, common as bums, common as dirt, common as muck, common as pig tracks, dime a dozen, everyday, frequent, general, habitual, nonrare, par for the course, pedestrian, plain, quotidian, regular, routinary, routine, ten a penny, usual, workaday, not worth a dime, bastardly, blown, cacky, chaffy, cocking, crapalicious, cruddy, cullionly, draffish, draffy, dreckish, drecky, duffing, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, for the birds, fucking, garbagey, good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, goodless, ineffectual, invaluable, jabberwocky, junky, mouldy, mucid, naughty, no-account, no good / no-good, nonvaluable, not worth a damn, not worth a plug nickel, not worth a brass farthing, not worth a cent, not worth a cress, not worth a curse, not worth a Continental, not worth a farthing, not worth hell room, not worth a nickel, not worth a penny, not worth salt, not worth a whistle, nought, of no value, pissass, punk, putid, rubbishly, rubbishy, sixpenny, scabbed, screwy, scummy, shand, shit, shitey, shitstained, shitty-ass, sorry-ass, strawlike, suckworthy, tenth-rate, toshy, trinkety, triobolar, tripy, two-bit, unappreciated, unvaluable, vain, valueless, worthless, worth nothing, wutless

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ten, a, penny: sold at ten (10) units per penny (1d or 1¢).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

With literal origins; now usually in the figuratively extended sense.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Japanese: 二束三文 (nisoku sanmon) — so common as to be practically worthless
  • Russian: как собак нерезаных (kak sobak nerezanyx) — so common as to be practically worthless
  • Swedish: tretton på dussinet — so common as to be practically worthless