rolling stone

noun

"rolling-stone" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“rolling stone” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who moves around a lot and never settles down; a vagrant.

Corpus desk

Index EN-rolling-stone · rolling stone · English

rolling stone · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "R" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for rolling stone
PropertyValue
Headwordrolling stone
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “rolling stone” in English

rolling stoneranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

rolling stone is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for rolling stone, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From the proverb a rolling stone gathers no moss. The correct English form is rolling stone, spelled R-O-L-L-I-N-G- -S-T-O-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A person who moves around a lot and never settles down; a vagrant.
  2. 2
    A womanizer.
  3. 3
    A geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without animal or human intervention.
  4. 4
    A meteoroid.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how rolling stone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job.
  2. How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone?

Etymology

From the proverb a rolling stone gathers no moss.

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

How do you spell "rolling stone"?
"rolling stone" is spelled R-O-L-L-I-N-G- -S-T-O-N-E.
What does "rolling stone" mean?
As a noun, "rolling stone" means: A person who moves around a lot and never settles down; a vagrant.
What is the origin of the word "rolling stone"?
From the proverb a rolling stone gathers no moss. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list