Coins worth ten cents in United States and Canadian currency; small round pieces of metal money.
From Old French 'dime' meaning 'tithe' or 'tenth part,' derived from Latin 'decima' meaning 'tenth.' American coins were named this because they were worth one-tenth of a dollar.
A dime is literally a 'tenth'—from the Latin 'decima'—because it's one-tenth of a dollar! We inherited the French 'dime' word when we needed to name our new currency, and it stuck for 250 years.
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