Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hilly
1350–1400; Middle English; Old English hyllīc. See hill, -y 1
Explanation
Land that's hilly rises and falls with many hills. The hilly roads in eastern Kansas might surprise you, if you've always imagined the entire state being completely flat. A hilly neighborhood requires walkers to trudge up steep slopes, and a hilly field is a picturesque backdrop for a farmer's exotic sheep to graze in. Anything that's hilly is marked with hills, or mounds of land that are smaller than mountains. The Old English source of both hilly and hill is hyll, from a Proto-Germanic root.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Harris enthusiastically greeted voters who answered their doors, even running up hilly driveways to shake their hands and handing out his personal phone number.
From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026
Mamlekate also posted videos, apparently shot in the hilly parts of northern Tehran, with the chants resounding around the area.
From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026
Pittsburgh is a city of some 90 hilly neighborhoods, where the front doors of row houses open to the sidewalk, brick houses have porches but no garages, and street parking is often the rule.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
The hilly neighborhood is tucked on the southeast tip of the city near Glassell Park and Atwater Village and features a vibrant mix of 1920s bungalows and Spanish Colonial-style retreats.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2026
Laura’s cream-colored coffin was interred in the small non-denominational cemetery on the edge of town: unfenced, a hilly woodland meadow filled with black granite and white marble headstones.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
