guinea

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Guinea¹

  • /ˈɡɪni/ Australia, Canada, UK

Rhymes with -ɪni

Where it comes from

From Portuguese Guiné + -ia, the first part of which is of uncertain origin.

proper noun

  1. historical The coastal region of West Africa between Morocco and the Congo, particularly the north shore of the Gulf of Guinea.
  2. A country in West Africa. Official name: Republic of Guinea. Among the frontrunners before the conclave began were Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state; Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines; Péter Erdő, a traditionalist from Hungary; Robert Sarah, a cardinal from Guinea who criticised Francis’s papacy; and the moderate US cardinal R
  3. US, derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur Alternative letter-case form of guinea, an Italian.

guinea²

  • /ˈɡɪni/

Rhymes with -ɪni

Where it comes from

From Guinea, the early modern name for West Africa, the coins originally being made of gold from the region, mostly from the 'Gold Coast' (modern Ghana) and used for African trade, and the guinea fowl being found there.

Its use as an ethnic slur against Italians may be due to their darker complexion compared to people of Anglo-American descent.

noun guineas

  1. UK, historical A gold coin originally worth twenty shillings; later (from 1717 until the adoption of decimal currency) standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and squar
  2. Synonym of guinea fowl. The guineas peeped complainingly, the goslings waddled into all the puddles and came back to chill my skin.

    Similar: guinea fowl

  3. US, derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur A person of Italian descent. If I’m to tell the whole truth—and why not? I sure have the time!—I’ll have to start by saying I was born Richard Pinzetti, in New York’s Little Italy. My father was an Old World guinea.

    Similar: dago, Eyetie, goombah, greaseball, guido, wog, wop

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: french guinea, greaseball, wop, dago, guinea fowl, numida meleagris, guinea-bissau, ghana, guyana, guinean, guiana, bissau, conakry, singapore, ireland, china

Translations

Every language

name short form of the Republic of Guinea

EspañolGuinea
日本語ギニア Ginia
中文幾內亞 /几内亚 Jǐnèiyà
हिन्दीगिनी ginī
KiswahiliGine
PortuguêsGuiné
FrançaisGuinée
DeutschGuinea
ItalianoGuinea
ΕλληνικάΓουινέα Gouinéa
RomânăGuineea
РусскийГвине́я Gvinéja
Tiếng ViệtGhi-nê
العربيةغِينْيَا ḡīnyā, غِنَاوَة ḡināwa
עבריתגִּינֵאָה ginea

noun coin worth 21 shillings

Españolguinea
한국어기니 gini
日本語ギニー ginī
中文堅尼 /坚尼 jiānní
हिन्दीगिनी ginī
Portuguêsguinéu
Françaisguinée
DeutschGuinee
Italianoghinea
Русскийгине́я ginéja
العربيةجُنَيْه junayh

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MLA

"guinea." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/guinea. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

guinea. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/guinea

Chicago

"guinea." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/guinea.

BibTeX
@misc{guinea_2026,
  title = {guinea},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/guinea},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}