Meaning & use
rolling hills
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Meaning
nounplural
A stretch of countryside made up of smooth, gentle hills that rise and fall in long, wave-like curves.
Grammar: Always plural and used with a plural verb: the rolling hills stretch to the coast.
Patterns
- the rolling hills of somewhere
- a landscape of rolling hills
We drove for hours through the green rolling hills of Tuscany.
Sheep grazed on the rolling hills behind the farmhouse.
The vineyard sits among rolling hills dotted with oak trees.
Common combinations
- the green rolling hills
- The green rolling hills looked like a painting.
- rolling hills and valleys
- The trail winds through rolling hills and valleys.
- gentle rolling hills
- The farm lies among gentle rolling hills.
- the rolling hills of
- She grew up in the rolling hills of Vermont.
- surrounded by rolling hills
- The village is surrounded by rolling hills.
Synonyms and how they differ
- undulating land
- This is more technical and formal, often used in surveys or geography writing.
- downs
- This is a British term for open, grassy hills, particularly in southern England, and is narrower than rolling hills.
- foothills
- This refers specifically to lower hills at the base of mountains, not any gently curving hills.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: rolling hills or rolling stones?
rolling hills vs rolling stones
Rolling stones are moving rocks; rolling hills are not moving but gently curved in shape.
Practice
Instead of flat plains, the countryside here consists of _____.
Choose one answer.
Rolling hills describes gently curving land. Waves belong to water, stones are rocks and cliffs are steep, not gentle.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rolling hills”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.