Rolling

How to spell rolling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rolling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rolling mean?

1. verbMoving along by turning over and over, or turning something in that way.
2. adjectiveGently rising and falling, used of hills or open countryside.
3. adjectiveHappening on a continuous, staggered basis rather than all at once.

Rolling in a sentence

• verb

  The loose barrel kept rolling across the deck of the boat.

• adjective

  The cottage looked out over miles of rolling green hills.

• adjective

  The company introduced a rolling programme of staff training.

• verb

  She watched the coin go rolling under the desk.

• adjective

  The train passed through rolling farmland for most of the morning.

• adjective

  The city faced rolling power cuts throughout the heatwave.

Where does rolling come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base verb 'roll' came into English in the 1300s from Old French roller, meaning 'to roll or revolve', which descended from the Latin rotulare, 'to turn round like a wheel'. That in turn was built on rotula, a little wheel, the diminutive of rota, the ordinary Latin word for a wheel. The same rota root still turns up in modern English words such as 'rotate', 'rotary' and 'rotund', all of them carrying the idea of round shapes or circular motion. The form 'rolling' simply adds the native English -ing ending to give the present participle and a descriptive adjective. The doubled l is the one spelling point worth remembering: because 'roll' already ends in a double l, that pair carries straight through into 'rolling'.

How the word is built

• roll (from Latin rota: wheel)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)