1. A basic unit of currency in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Switzerland, and Togo.
2. The primary unit of currency in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Monaco before the adoption of the euro.

[Middle English frank, French gold coin, from Old French franc, from Medieval Latin Francōrum (rēx), (king) of the Franks (from the legend on the first of these coins), genitive pl. of Francus, Frank. See Frank.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.