Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Rotate |
RotateVerb1. Turn on or around an axis or a center; "The Earth revolves around the Sun"; "The lamb roast rotates on a spit over the fire". 2. Exchange on a regular basis; "We rotate the lead soprano every night". 3. Cause to turn on an axis or center; "Rotate the handle". 4. Perform a job or duty on a rotating basis; "Interns have to rotate for a few months". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "rotate" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1844. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Aerospace | To turn about an internal axis. Said especially of celestial bodies. Hence rotation. Compare revolve. (references) |
Computing | An instruction which shifts the contents of a register or word to the left or right. The bit coming in one end of the rotating word is generally the one falling off the other end. Sometimes, it is the old value of the carry bit(9-bit rotation). Source: European Union. (references) |
Post & Telecom | The magnets can also -- the arm to touch any of the 10 terminals on each metal piece. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Rotation is the movement of a body in such a way that any given point of that body remains at a constant distance from some other fixed point.
The fixed point can be within the body, in which case the body is said to rotate upon itself, or spin. In 3 dimensional space, for a given rotational movement there is more than one fixed point: these form a line known as the axis of rotation.
An object may allow rotation with respect to an attached other object by means of one or more hinges (e.g. a door, scissors, a hinge joint).
In astronomy, rotation is a commonly observed phenomenon. Stars, planets and similar bodies all rotate around their central axes. The motion of the components of galaxies is more complex, but it usually includes a rotation component.
Mathematicians consider rotations to be linear transformations on a vector space with an inner product. These form a group of so called special orthogonal matrices (special means determinant equals 1, orthogonal means the transpose is the inverse) designated by the name SO(n) in case of a n dimensional vector space.
One consequence of the rotation of a planet is the phenomenon of precession. Precession has the overall effect of introducing a long-term "wobble" in the movement of the axis of a planet. For example, the tilt of the Earth's axis to its orbital plane (obliquity of the ecliptic) is currently 66.5 degrees, but this angle has slowly changed over time due to the action of precession. One result of this motion is that the direction of the North Pole and South Pole with respect to the background stars has changed over time, such that the star currently appearing over the North Pole (Polaris) did not so appear ten thousand years ago, and will not ten thousand years from now. With respect to Earth, this phenomenon is called the precession of the equinoxes.
See: spin, angular velocity
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Rotation."
Synonyms: RotateSynonyms: circumvolve (v), go around (v), revolve (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Rotation | Verb: rotate; roll along; revolve, spin; turn round; circumvolve; circulate; gyre, gyrate, wheel, whirl, pirouette; twirl, trundle, troll, bowl. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Rotate |
| English words defined with "rotate": anterior serratus muscle ♦ ball-and-socket joint, birl, birle ♦ Chromatoscope, Circumrotate, Codariocalyx motorius, compound pendulum, crank, crank up, cylinder lock ♦ deltoid, deltoid muscle, Desmodium gyrans, Desmodium motorium, Dextrally, differential, differential gear ♦ ecliptic, eye muscle ♦ fifth wheel ♦ genus Volvox ♦ latency ♦ musculus deltoideus, musculus sartorius, musculus serratus anterior ♦ ocular muscle ♦ Photodrome, physical pendulum, psoas ♦ revolve, rocker, roll, rotational latency, Rotiform ♦ sartorius, sartorius muscle, semaphore plant, serratus anterior, serratus magnus ♦ telegraph plant, turbine, turn, turn over ♦ Volvox ♦ wheel. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "rotate": Rouche. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And answer those phones, install a computer system, and rotate my office so the window faces the hills (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) It's just like making love. Up, down, rotate sixty degrees (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) Nina, take my car to the garage and rotate my tires (3rd Rock from the Sun; writing credit: Leslie Danon; Austin Reid) | |
Lyrics | Gal don’t sweat it, don’t get agitate just gwaan rotate (Get Busy; performing artist: SEAN PAUL) | |
Clever | You are an engineer if you rotate your screen savers more frequently than your automobile tires. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | "Living in a Box" by Rainer Wonisch. Use the arrow keys to rotate the box to see what's inside. |  | "Rotating Transparent Plane" by Rod Rodrigues. Use the Scrollbar to vary A and rotate the plane. Transparency makes it easier to see how the plane intersects the surface. |
 | Centrally located water tank allows a farmer in southern Iowa to rotate cattle on different pastures, which allows regrowth of the pastures and is a productive grazing system. Credit: Unknown. |  | Electric wire fencing is used to rotate grazing cattle on a 3 week rotation. Cattle on left have grazed for 3 weeks and will be rotated to the pasture on the right. Electric wire fence is used to manage the grazing. Benton, Arkansas. Credit: Jeff Vanuga. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Radio frequency scala" by Nick Lobeck Commentary: "A nice round scala from a radio frequency meter ... i can rotate the red line to every position, please contact me if you want another station ;) nick@voo.ch." | "Science centre Tower Glasgow 1" by Craig Young Commentary: "Tower at Glasgow Science Centre. It's supposed to be able to rotate but there was a problem and it's not used any more." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Whirl; synthesized; tone; circle; eddy; gyrate; gyre; pirouette; pivot; purl; reel; revolve; roll; rotate; swirl; swoosh; turn; turn around; twirl; twist; wheel; whir. | | Spin; roulette; wheel; oscillate; pendulate; pirouette; purl; reeling; revolve; revolving; rotate; rotating; twirl; whirl. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | If they could only rotate the crops they might pump blood back into the land |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Korea | Laws and regulations are framed in general terms and are subject to differing interpretations by government officials, who rotate frequently. (references) |
Political Rights | Bhutan | The King removed himself as Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1998. Based on an election held in the National Assembly in 1998, Cabinet Ministers who received the most votes rotate the position on a yearly basis. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Rotate" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 64.65% of the time. "Rotate" is used about 198 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 64.65% | 128 | 28,261 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 31.31% | 62 | 42,755 |
| Noun (singular) | 4.04% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Total | 100.00% | 198 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "rotate": rotate-and-move. | |
Ending with "rotate": co-rotate. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "rotate"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | rrotulloj (crank, gyrate, revolve, slue round, spin, swing, swivel, traverse, twist, whirl), qarkulloj (circulate, move along), në formë të rrotës. (various references) | |
Arabic | تناوب في الزراعة (rotation), تناوب (alternate, alternation, relay, rotation, shift), تعاقب (alternate, alternation, gradation, interchange, progression, revolve, rotation, sequence, series, succeed, succession), زرع على نحو متناوب, أدار (administer, boss, carry on, cast, direct, dispense, govern, manage, mobilize, operate, order, preside, procure, run, slew, slue, spin, spun, steward, superintend, tumble, twiddle, twirl, wind, work), راوح, دولابي الشكل, دار (circle, come round, dwelling, go, gyrate, hand round, home, house, operate, orb, orbit, pan, parlor, parlour, residence, revolve, round, screw, spin, spun, swing, swing round, swirl, swivel, turn over, twiddle, twirl, up and about, wheel, whirl, wind). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | редувам (alternate, change off, interchange), с форма на колело, кръгъл (circular, globular, orbed, orbicular, positive, rotund, round), въртя (manage, move, revolve, roll, roll about, spin, sway, swing, switch, swivel, toss about, trifle, turn, twiddle, wag, wheel about, wiggle, wind), повъртявам се (hang around for a while). (various references) | |
Chinese | 转动 (rotated, rotating, spinning, Spun, Trundled, Trundling, turned, turning, twirl, Wheeled, Wheeling), 輪 (gear, turn, wheel), 迴轉 (revolve, rotation). (various references) | |
Czech | toèit se (curve, go round, revolve, swim, swirl, turn, twirl, twist, veer, whiffle), střídat (alternate, diversify), otáčet, otáèet se (gyrate, pivot, revolve, spin, veer, wheel). (various references) | |
Danish | rotere. (various references) | |
Dutch | roteren (pivot), wentelen (roll, turn, turn around, turn round). (various references) | |
Farsi | محوری (Pivotal, Radial), چرخیدن (Pivot, Reel, Revolve, Rollup, Swing, Trill, Troll, Trundle, Turquoise, Twirl, Wheel, Whirl, Windmill, Wry), برمحورخودگردیدن . (various references) | |
Finnish | pyörittää (roll, turn, wheel), kierto (circulation, cycle, rotation, round), kiertää (circle, circulate, dodge, evade, go around, make a detour, turn, twist, wind), kierrätys (recycling, regeneration, wraparound). (various references) | |
French | rotatoire (rotary, rotational, rotatory), rotation (rotation), tourner (roll, round, swing round, turn round), pivoter, imprimer un mouvement de rotation, faire tourner, faire pivoter, faire à tour de rôle, alterner. (various references) | |
German | rotieren (turn), drehen (be about, centre on, change, concern, contort, film, fix, grind, pull, pull off, revolve, roll, shift, slew, span, spin, spun, swivel, take, throw, to revolve, to turn, to twiddle, to twirl, to twist, turn, turn around, turn round, twiddle, twirl, twist, wangle, wheel, wind, work). (various references) | |
Greek | περιστρέφω (revolve, slew, slue, wheel), περιστρέφομαι (gyrate, revolve, slew, slue, spin). (various references) | |
Hebrew | למחזר (recycle), להסתובב (get about, perambulate, revolve, roll, slue, swivel, tour, turn, turn around, turn over, turn round), לסובב (circuit, revolve, roll, slue, sprain, twiddle, wind). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kerék alakú, forog (gyrate, revolve, slue, spun, swung, to gyrate, to hinge, to spin, to swing, to swivel, to traverse, to turn round and round, to twirl, to whirl, turn), forgat (distort, revolve, span, spin, spun, swivel, to feather, to indorse, to rotate, to spin, to swivel, to turn over, to twirl, turn over, twirl, wield). (various references) | |
Indonesian | memutarkan (revolve). (various references) | |
Italian | ruotare (circle, revolve, roll, spin, swing, swivel, twiddle, wheel, wheel about), rotare (slew, slue), girare (circulate, endorse, go round, gyrate, indorse, make, reel, revolve, round, shoot, spin, stir, swing, swirl, to turn, to wander, turn, twirl, twist, veer, wander, wheel, whirl, wind), fare una permutazione circolare. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 取り回す (to dispose of, to manage, to rotate in one's hands, to treat). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | とりまわす (to dispose of, to manage, to rotate in one's hands, to treat). (various references) | |
Korean | 자전하십시요. (various references) | |
Manx | queeyllaghey (bind, bowl, bowl as hoop, roll, wheel, whirl), caghlaa (break in weather, change, interpret, mutate, phase of moon, substitution, switch; alteration, variation). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | otateray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | rotiforme, rotação (circuit, rev, revolution, rolling, rotation, spin, turn, twirl, wind), rotáceo, rodar (circle, reseat, revolve, slue round, swing, turn, wheel), suceder-se ciclicamente, girar em volta, circular (be about, circle, circular, circulate, circumvent, course, float, go around, round, show card, surround), alternar (alternate, alternating, bandy, interchange, reciprocate). (various references) | |
Romanian | roti (revolve, roll, spin, swing, turn, wheel, whirl), se roti (Eddy, move, reel, spin, whirl), pivota (pivot, swing), face cu schimbul, cultiva în asolament, învârti (brandish, dance, grind, manipulate, revolve, roll, spin, turn, turn round, twiddle, twirl, twist, wheel, whirl, wield, wind). (various references) | |
Russian | колесовидный, вращать сдвиг, вращать (revolve, rotated, slew, turn). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | rotirati (spin), u obliku točka, točkast, smenjivati se (give way to, take turns), okrenuti (dial, turn, turn over), obrtati se (pivot, wheel, whirl), obrtati (slue round, swivel, wind). (various references) | |
Spanish | rotar. (various references) | |
Swedish | rotera (gyrate, revolve, wheel). (various references) | |
Thai | สับเปลี่ยน (shunt), ทำให้หมุน (swirl), หมุน (slue around, slue rolund, swirl), ปลูกพืชหมุนเวียน. (various references) | |
Turkish | rotasyonlu olarak çalıştırmak, tekerleksi, tekerlek biçimindeki, her sene değişik ekin ekmek, eksen çevresinde dönmek, dolandırmak (bilk, bunco, cheat, chisel, con, cozen, defraud, diddle, do, do down, do in, double cross, flimflam, gammon, gold brick, gull, gyp, have, hornswoggle, jockey, Nick, nobble, racketeer, rook, sell smb. a gold brick, sell smb. a pup, spoof, swindle, take in), dolamak (cincture, coil, coil up, enlace, enwrap, lap, reel, reel up, twist, whip, whirl, wind, wrap), dönmek (abjure, apostatize, bear, budge from, call back, change one's mind, chop about, chop round, circle, come back, come home, deflect, face, front, get round, go back, go back on, gyrate, pivot, put about, recall, recant, reel, regress, renege, repass, return, return to, revert, revolve, round, screw, sheer from, slew, slue, spin, swallow, swerve, swim, swing, switch, switch to, tumble, turn, turn back, turn one's coat, turn over, turn round, turn up, twist, veer, veer round, wheel, wheel about, wheel around, whirl), döndürmek (deflect, return, reverse, revolve, roll, round off, slew, slew round, slue, slue round, spin, swerve, swing, turn, turn aside, turn inside out, turn over, turn round, twiddle, twirl, veer, veer round, wheel, whip, whirl, wind, wind up), dönüşümlü olmak, dönüşümlü olarak yer değiştirmek. (various references) | |
Turkmen | towlamak. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | чергуватися (alternate, interchange, interlace, take turns), чергувати (interchange, interlace, keep vigil, watch), обертатися (circle, circuit, encircle, encompass, pivot, revolve, slew, turn, turn about, turn around, turn round, wheel, whirl), обертати (revolve, slew, swivel, turn, wheel). (various references) | |
Welsh | cylchdroi (revolve), chwyldroi (revolve, whirl). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | contorquere, conversa, conversae, conversi, conversique, conversum, conversus, conversusque, convertam, convertantur, convertar, convertat, convertatur, converte, convertebantur, convertebat, convertemini, convertemur, convertemus, convertendas, convertendo, convertendos, convertendum, convertens, convertent, convertentem, convertentes, convertenti, convertentibus, convertentur, converterat, convertere, converteremur, converterentur, converteret, converteretur, converterint, converteris, converterit, convertero, converteruntque, convertes, convertet, convertetur, converti, convertimini, convertimur, convertis, convertissem, convertisti, convertistis, convertit, convertitis, convertitque, converto, convertuntur, rota, rotabitur, rotas, roto. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "rotate": rotated, rotates. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "rotate": autorotate, corotate. (additional references) | |
Words containing "rotate": autorotated, autorotates, corotated, corotates. (additional references) | |
| |
"Rotate" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ratjada, reptate, retat, retute, ritratto, roate, Roatta, robate, Robati, rochat, Rodota, rogare, rogate, rooteth, Rosati, Rosato, rotadex, Rotanev, rotart, rotat, rotaty, rotet, Rovatti, Rowatt, Royat, torate. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "rotate" (pronounced rō"tā't) |
| 3 | -t ā' t | agitate, amputate, annotate, acetate, cogitate, imitate, incapacitate, debilitate, decapitate, devastate, downstate, facilitate, gravitate, hesitate, irritate, levitate, meditate, militate, mutate, necessitate, overstate, potentate, precipitate, premeditate, prostate, punctate, rehabilitate, resuscitate, tristate, understate, vegetate. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-o-r-t-t" | |
-1 letter: oater, orate, ottar, otter, rotte, tarot, tater, tetra, torte, toter, treat. | |
-2 letters: aero, rate, rato, rota, rote, tare, taro, tart, tate, tear, teat, toea, tora, tore, tort, tote, tret, trot. | |
-3 letters: are, art, ate, att, ear, eat, era, eta, oar, oat, ora, ore, ort, rat, ret, roe, rot, tae, tao, tar, tat, tea. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-o-r-t-t" | |
+1 letter: abettor, garotte, outrate, rotated, rotates, taboret, toaster. | |
+2 letters: abettors, aerostat, allotter, amaretto, amoretti, amoretto, attestor, attorned, attorney, betatron, corotate, cottager, frottage, garotted, garotter, garottes, garrotte, obturate, operetta, outrated, outrates, outstare, outtrade, overtart, patentor, prostate, retroact, rheostat, rostrate, rotative, taborets, tabouret, tattooer, tautomer, teratoid, teratoma, testator, tetragon, tetrapod, theocrat, throated, toasters, toastier, tolerant, tolerate, torquate, tutorage. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
