Word.ws English Dictionary

shilling

Syllables: shil·ling/ˈʃɪlɪŋ/

shilling noun: a coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling. Also the alternative form of schilling.

shilling: a coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other...
Image: Paginazero, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

shilling (plural shillings)

  1. (historical) A coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling.
    • A great bargain also had been[…]the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings...1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans...
  2. The currency of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.
  3. (US, historical) A currency in the United States, differing in value between states.
  4. (US, historical, New York and some other states) The Spanish real, formerly having the value of one eighth of a dollar.

Proper noun capitalized: Shilling

Shilling (plural Shillings)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

shilling is also the alternative form of schilling.

shilling is also the alternative form of skilling.

shilling is also the present participle and gerund of shill.

shilling meaning in Hindi, Arabic and Malay

shilling in Hindi

former coin
शिलिंग śiliṅg

shilling in Arabic

currency
شِلِّن šillin

shilling in Malay

currency
syiling
former coin
syiling

Examples of shilling in a sentence

  • Have you got two sixpences for a shilling?
  • I could get thirty shillings in the local fish-and-chipper on a Saturday night.
  • Traditionally it would cost two and six – two shillings and six pence.

All 40 example sentences with shilling

Synonyms of shilling

All synonyms of shilling

Forms of shilling

Noun
pluralshillings
Proper noun
pluralShillings

Plural of shilling: shillings

Origin of shilling

From Middle English schilling, shilling, from Old English sċilling, from Proto-West Germanic *skilling, from Proto-Germanic *skillingaz, equivalent to skill + -ing. Doublet of scalding and schilling. Compare typologically Russian рубль (rublʹ) (akin to руби́ть (rubítʹ)), полти́на (poltína), полти́нник (poltínnik) (akin to Proto-Slavic *tęti).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from shilling

Phrases with shilling

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with shilling

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shilling

What does shilling mean?
Shilling means a coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling.
What is shilling in Hindi?
Shilling in Hindi is शिलिंग (śiliṅg). See Shilling meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is shilling?
Shilling can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce shilling?
Shilling is pronounced /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of shilling?
The plural of shilling is shillings.

Words near shilling in the dictionary

  1. shillied and shallied
  2. shillies and shallies
  3. shillig-a-booka
  4. shillig-a-bookas
  5. shillin'
  6. shilling
  7. shilling mark
  8. shilling marks
  9. shilling shocker
  10. shilling shockers
  11. shilling sign

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shilling (page history and authors); Shilling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-shilling.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shilling.wav.

Cite this entry: “shilling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shilling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.