rotate

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rotātus, perfect passive participle of rotō (“revolve”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from rota (“wheel”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

enPR: rōtāt'

enPR: rō'tāt

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈɹoʊteɪt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪt

Verb

rotate (third-person singular simple present rotates, present participle rotating, simple past and past participle rotated)

  1. (intransitive) To spin, turn, or revolve.
    He rotated in his chair to face me.
    The earth rotates.
  2. (intransitive) To advance through a sequence; to take turns.
    The nurses' shifts rotate each week.
  3. (intransitive, of aircraft) To lift the nose during takeoff, just prior to liftoff.
    The aircraft rotates at sixty knots.
  4. (transitive) To spin, turn, or revolve something.
    Rotate the dial to the left.
  5. (transitive) To advance something through a sequence; to allocate or deploy in turns.
    • 1975, “Architectural Digest”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 32, page 112:
      I've always admired the Japanese point of view that holds it best not to have a great number of objects around at one time but to rotate possessions — and display them with great simplicity.
  6. (transitive) To replace older materials or to place older materials in front of newer ones so that older ones get used first.
    The supermarket rotates the stock daily so that old foods don't sit around.
  7. (transitive) To grow or plant (crops) in a certain order.

Usage notes

"Rotate about" implies that the object is spinning in place (i.e. the defined axis passes through through some internal point of the object), while "rotate around" implies that the object is orbiting an external point.

Conjugation

Conjugation of rotate
infinitive (to) rotate
present tense past tense
1st-person singular rotate rotated
2nd-person singular rotate, rotatest† rotated, rotatedst†
3rd-person singular rotates, rotateth† rotated
plural rotate
subjunctive rotate rotated
imperative rotate —
participles rotating rotated

† Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Finnish: rotatoida

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

rotate (not comparable)

  1. Having the parts spreading out like a wheel; wheel-shaped.
    a rotate spicule or scale; a rotate corolla

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

rotate

  1. inflection of rotare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

rotate f pl

  1. feminine plural of rotato

Anagrams

Latin

Verb

rotāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of rotō

Spanish

Verb

rotate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of rotar combined with te
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