The yuan is, in the Chinese language, the base unit of a number of moern Chinese currencies. The same character is used to refer to the cognate currency units of Korea and Japan, and is used to translate the currency unit "dollar"; for example, the US dollar is called Meiyuan (美元), or "American yuan", in Chinese. When used in English in the context of the modern foreign exchange market, the "Yuan" or "Chinese yuan" most commonly refers to the renminbi (CNY).