Word.ws English Dictionary

rota

/ˈɹəʊtə/US/ˈɹoʊtə/

rota noun: a schedule that allocates some task, responsibility or (rarely) privilege between a set of people according to a (possibly periodic) calendar.

Noun (1)

rota (plural rotas)

  1. (Ireland, UK) A schedule that allocates some task, responsibility or (rarely) privilege between a set of people according to a (possibly periodic) calendar.
    • on a rota basis
    • [The manager] instituted a rota for having the players attend supporters’ club meetings throughout the season, telling them it was part of the job of being a footballer.2014 July 25, Paul Rees, “‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … People spat at us’”, in The Guardian

Noun (2)

rota (plural rotas)

  1. A kind of zither used in the Middle Ages in church music.
    • Along the creek bed he came, plucking a rota, a zither of five strings with bone-yoke facings and a beaverskin carrying-bag thrown over his shoulder.2011, A. A. Attanasio, The Wolf and the Crown (The Perilous Order of Camelot)

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Rota

Rota (countable and uncountable, plural Rotas)

  1. A branch of the papal Curia which serves as an appellate court in ecclesiastical cases, including cases of marriage nullity.
    • The Rota consists of twelve Doctors, chosen out of the four Nations of Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.1728, Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia, s.v. "Rota"
  2. (UK, historical, obsolete) A club established by James Harrington in 1659 to advocate term limits and rotation of government offices; other similar clubs of the era.
  3. (countable) A surname from Italian.
  4. A town in Andalusia, Spain.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Rota

Rota

  1. An island of the Northern Mariana Islands.

rota meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

rota in Tamil

வேலைமுறைப்பட்டியல் வேலைமுறை

rota in Urdu

معمول

rota in Malayalam

പേരുപട്ടിക, കർമ്മപരിപാടി

Forms of rota

Noun
pluralrotas
alternative formrocta
alternative formrotta
Proper noun
pluralRotas

Plural of rota: rotas

Origin of rota

Borrowed from Latin rota (“wheel”). Doublet of rotor and ruote.

From Italian Rota, from Latin Rota, from Latin rota (“wheel”).

Words formed from rota

  • rotal
  • rota-man
  • rota room
  • Rota-room

Words that rhyme with rota

Questions about rota

What does rota mean?
Rota means a schedule that allocates some task, responsibility or (rarely) privilege between a set of people according to a (possibly periodic) calendar.
What is rota in Tamil?
Rota in Tamil is வேலைமுறைப்பட்டியல் வேலைமுறை. See Rota meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is rota?
Rota can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rota?
Rota is pronounced /ˈɹəʊtə/ (UK).
What is the plural of rota?
The plural of rota is rotas.

Words near rota in the dictionary

  1. rot-steeped
  2. rot-steeping
  3. rot-steeps
  4. rot.
  5. rot13
  6. rota
  7. rota Fortunae
  8. rotablation
  9. rotablations
  10. rotablator
  11. rotablators

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rota (page history and authors); Rota (page history and authors); rota (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rota (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rota (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rota.wav.

Cite this entry: “rota.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rota. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.