wold

Meanings

1. 1nouncountableBritishliterary

   An area of open, gently rolling upland country with few trees, especially in England.

   Grammar: Often used in the plural in place names: the Yorkshire Wolds.

   Patterns

   • the wolds of somewhere

   Sheep grazed on the high wold above the village.

   The road crossed the wold and dropped toward the sea.

   We walked across the Lincolnshire wold in the early morning mist.

2. 2nouncountablearchaic

   In older use, a wooded or forest region, before it was cleared to become open land.

   Grammar: Historical sense and now rare.

   Patterns

   • the wold of something

   Historians believe the Cotswold area was once a wold covered in trees.

   The old poem described a dark wold full of wolves.

   Place names like Weald and wold show how the land was named.

Word forms

Common combinations

the Cotswold wolds

They hiked across the wolds of the Cotswolds.

open wold

The open wold stretched to the horizon.

chalk wold

A chalk wold lies in east Yorkshire.

windswept wold

The windswept wold was empty except for sheep.

Synonyms and how they differ

upland

Upland is a general geographic word for higher ground, whereas wold names a specific gentle, open English landscape.

downs

Downs are chalk hills with grass, similar to a wold, though downs are the term used in southern England.

moor

Moor suggests wild, boggy, often heather-covered land, while a wold is more farmland and gently rolling.

hills

Hills is the plain, general word, but it lacks the old, regional feel that wold carries.

Opposites

Word family

Cotswolds proper noun

a range of hills in England whose name contains wold

weald noun

a related old word for woodland, as in the Weald of Kent

upland noun

high ground

Commonly confused: wold or world?

Practice

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