rotate
rotate Lexical Profile
rotate Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To move or cause to move in a circle around an axis or center.
"The Earth rotates on its axis once every twenty-four hours."
To pass, alternate, or cause to pass or alternate in a regular, recurring sequence of duties, positions, or crops.
"Farmers rotate their crops each season to prevent the depletion of soil nutrients."
• adjective
Having the parts flat and spreading out radially like the spokes of a wheel, especially of a flower corolla with a very short tube and wide, flat lobes (in botany and zoology).
"The tomato plant produces small yellow blossoms with a distinctly rotate corolla."
Word Nuance & Usage
'Rotate' and 'revolve' are often used interchangeably in casual speech, but in physics and astronomy 'rotate' specifically means to spin around an internal axis (as the Earth does every 24 hours), whereas 'revolve' means to travel in an orbit around an external center (as the Earth does around the Sun).
• Rhymes for rotate
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 18th century (as a verb) and mid-19th century (as an adjective) from Latin 'rotatus', the past participle of 'rotare' ('to revolve or roll like a wheel'), derived from 'rota' ('wheel').