fungibility

/ˌfʌnʤɪˈbɪlɪti/

Fungibility is the interchangeable nature of something, like the fungibility of money — you can trade a ten dollar bill for two fives, and you've still got the same amount of cash.

The noun fungibility is most often used in economics, to talk about money, gold, stocks, bonds — any commodity or good whose individual units can be swapped or exchanged evenly. Gold's fungibility means that you can trade a nugget for a gold coin, as long as both contain the same amount of gold. The Latin root is the phrase fungi vice, "serve in place of."

Definitions of fungibility

1. noun

   the quality of being capable of exchange or interchange
   synonyms: exchangeability, interchangeability, interchangeableness

   types:

   duality

   (geometry) the interchangeability of the roles of points and planes in the theorems of projective geometry

   transferability

   the quality of being transferable or exchangeable

   convertibility

   the quality of being exchangeable (especially the ability to convert a currency into gold or other currencies without restriction)

   inconvertibility

   the quality of not being exchangeable

   commutability, replaceability, substitutability

   exchangeability by virtue of being replaceable

   liquidity

   being in cash or easily convertible to cash; debt paying ability

   permutability, permutableness, transposability

   ability to change sequence

   type of:

   changeability, changeableness

   the quality of being changeable; having a marked tendency to change