The yuan (/jwæn/ or /jwɛn/, /juːˈɑːn/ or /ˈjuːən/; sign: ¥; Chinese: 元; pinyin: yuán; [ɥæ̌n] ) is the base unit of a number of former and present-day Chinese currencies, and usually refers to the primary unit of account of the renminbi, the currency of the People's Republic of China. It is also used as a synonym of that currency, especially in international contexts – the ISO 4217 standard code for renminbi is CNY, an abbreviation of “Chinese yuan”. (A similar case is the use of the terms sterling to designate British currency and pound for the unit of account.)