shilling

American  

[shil-ing] / ˈʃɪl ɪŋ /

noun

• shillings
  plural

1. a cupronickel coin and former monetary unit of the United Kingdom, the 20th part of a pound, equal to 12 pence: retained in circulation equal to 5 new pence after decimalization in 1971. s.

2. a former monetary unit of various other nations, as Australia, Fiji, Ghana, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, and Nigeria, equal to one twentieth of a pound or 12 pence.

3. the monetary unit of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda, equal to 100 cents.

4. any of various coins and moneys of account used in various parts of the U.S. in the 18th and 19th centuries.

5. shilling mark.

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shilling British  

/ ˈʃɪlɪŋ /

noun

1. Abbreviation: s, sh. a former British and Australian silver or cupronickel coin worth one twentieth of a pound: not minted in Britain since 1970

2. the standard monetary unit of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda: divided into 100 cents

3. an old monetary unit of the US varying in value in different states

4. /-. (in combination) an indication of the strength and character of a beer, referring to the price after duty that was formerly paid per barrel

   sixty-shilling

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shilling Idioms  

1. see cut off (with a shilling).

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• shillings
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of shilling

before 900; Middle English; Old English scilling; cognate with Dutch schelling, German Schilling, Old Norse skillingr, Gothic skillings

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Explanation

A shilling is an old British coin, roughly equal to a nickel. Twenty shillings were equal to one pound. The shilling isn't used any more in Great Britain, although other countries, like Uganda and Kenya, still use shillings. It was a small silver colored coin with a small value, similar to the nickel in the United States, that was used from the 1500's until Britain decimalised its currency in 1971 and stopped making shillings. The popular nickname for a shilling was a "bob."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shilling shillings

He had walked from the infant school to the junior school hall to pay a shilling for his school dinner.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

Grace reached into a drawer, grabbed a fistful of Ugandan shilling notes, and handed over the cash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026

MrBeast is shilling for Salesforce, a collaboration that previously ran during the Winter Olympics.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026

And when you remember that those words, and all those other businesses shilling the same fantasy, are coming from billionaires who experience that reality every day, it’s insulting, isn't it?

From Salon ● May 7, 2025

Mr. Armin crouched and dropped a shilling into the man's filthy hat.

From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood

The article had pictures of Durham Prison, revealing that "the men who were found guilty of stealing a fortune in mailbags spend their week stitching them for nine shillings".

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

One offering, priced at five shillings per share, is the New Cabbage and Potatoe Co., “no cooking required.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

In comparison, a monthly package for DStv, owned by MultiChoice, another major player in the African digital TV market, costs between 700 and 10,500 shillings.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024

Together, the two stones brought him 7.74 billion Tanzanian shillings – about $3.35 million.

From NewsForKids.net ● Mar. 18, 2024

On November 24, 1859, on a wintry Thursday morning, Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection appeared in bookstores in England, priced at fifteen shillings a copy.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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