shilling

noun

shil·​ling ˈshi-liŋ 

1

a

: a former monetary unit of the United Kingdom equal to 12 pence or 1/20 pound

b

: a former monetary unit equal to 1/20 pound of any of various countries in or formerly in the Commonwealth of Nations

2

: a coin representing one shilling

3

: any of several early American coins

4

: the basic monetary unit of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda see Money Table

Examples of shilling in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Prosecutors say Kequn had been sourcing the ants from Mwangi, allegedly paying 60,000 Kenyan shillings ($463) for an initial batch of 600 ants, and 70,000 shillings ($540) for another batch of 700. —ABC News, 16 Apr. 2026

Last year four men were fined 1 million shillings each for trying to traffic thousands of ants. —Reuters, NBC news, 16 Apr. 2026

Nairobi, KenyaReuters — A ​Kenyan court on Wednesday ordered a Chinese ⁠man to pay a fine of 1 ​million shillings ($7,746) and gave him a 12-month jail term for trying to smuggle live ants out of the country. —CNN Money, 15 Apr. 2026

Before the border closure, at least 20 tonnes of khat were exported daily by road, valued at around 5 million Kenyan shillings ($39,000) per day. —Joseph Maina, semafor.com, 27 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English scilling; akin to Old High German skilling, a gold coin

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for shilling

• billing
• chilling
• drilling
• filling
• grilling
• killing
• milling
• pilling
• rilling
• schilling
• skilling
• spilling

Kids Definition

shilling

noun

shil·​ling ˈshil-iŋ 

1

: a former unit of British money equal to ¹⁄₂₀ pound

2

: a coin equal to ¹⁄₂₀ pound in any of several countries of the Commonwealth of Nations

3

: any of several early American coins

4

a

: the basic unit of money of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda

b

: a coin representing this unit