Slang terms for money often derive from the appearance and features of banknotes or coins, their values, historical associations or the units of currency concerned. Within a single language community some of the slang terms vary across social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata, but others have become the dominant way of referring to the currency and are regarded as mainstream, acceptable language e.g. "buck" for a dollar or similar currency in various nations including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Nigeria and the United States.

General terms

General terms specific to certain social, ethnic, economic and geographic strata include; "bread" (an allusion to the importance of money), "buck", "clam", "dosh", "dough", "folding stuff", "honk", "lolly", "lucre"/"filthy lucre", "moola/moolah", "readies", "spondulicks/spondoolic(k)s", "Spondoolies" and "wonga". "Fiver" may be used for an Australian 5 dollar note, A British five-pound note, a Canadian five-dollar bill, a five-Euro banknote or a United States five-dollar bill.