old as the hills
/ˌəʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/
"old-as-the-hills" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“old as the hills” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Extremely old.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | old as the hills |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌəʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “old as the hills” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
old as the hills is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌəʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Extremely old.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for old as the hills, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly a reference to Job 15:7 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou made before the hills?” The correct English form is old as the hills, spelled O-L-D- -A-S- -T-H-E- -H-I-L-L-S.
Definition
- 1Extremely old.
Etymology
Possibly a reference to Job 15:7 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou made before the hills?”
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “old as the hills”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-L-D- -A-S- -T-H-E- -H-I-L-L-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌəʊld əz‿ðə ˈhɪlz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.