What does shilling mean?
Word: Shilling
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Shilling means an old British coin used until 1971; twenty shillings made one pound.
How do you spell shilling?
Syllables: shil - ling
Tricky part: Students often drop one of the two l's and write shiling, or blur the ending into -eng.
Watch out for: shiling, shilleng, shillng
Memory tip: Shilling ends just like chilling, double l and all, so imagine an old coin chilling in the fridge.
Shilling in a sentence
Example 1: My grandfather still has a shilling from his visit to London in 1960.
Example 2: In old English novels, a shilling could buy a good meal.
Example 3: The price at the market in Nairobi was given in shillings.
Fun Fact
Shillings are still used today. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia all call their money the shilling.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word:
1. currancy 2. merchent 3. tresury 4. shilling
a) the place where a country's money is managed
b) the system of money a country uses
c) a coin that Britain used before decimal money
d) a person who buys and sells goods
Show answer
c) a coin that Britain used before decimal money. Shilling is the only word in this list spelt correctly.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Among the coins in the old tin box was a worn gnilslih from 1946.
a) shilling
b) sapling
c) sibling
d) shingle
Show answer
a) shilling. Sibling, sapling and shingle each have one l, but the jumble carries two.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
At the museum in Mombasa, my cousin and I saw a shilling from 1921 lying beside a brass lamp and some fadded postage stamps.
a) fadded
b) shilling
c) museum
d) postage
Show answer
a) fadded. Fade keeps one d, so faded has a single d before -ed.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these was also a British coin, like the shilling?
a) the florin
b) the yen
c) the peso
d) the euro
Show answer
a) the florin
2. In old British money, a shilling was worth twelve ____.
a) pounds
b) dollars
c) cents
d) pence
Show answer
d) pence
