Word.ws English Dictionary

rother

/ˈɹɒðə/

rother noun: a horned animal, especially an ox.

Noun (1)

rother (plural rothers)

  1. (obsolete) A horned animal, especially an ox.

Noun (2)

rother (plural rothers)

  1. A rudder.

Proper noun capitalized: Rother

Rother (countable and uncountable, plural Rothers)

  1. A surname.
  2. A river in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, England, which flows into the River Don at Rotherham.
  3. A river in Hampshire and West Sussex, England, which flows into the River Arun.
  4. A river in Kent and East Sussex, England, which flows into the English Channel.
    • Burwash, spread along a ridge between the rivers Rother and Dudwell, was an important centre of the iron industry three centuries ago when the Weald was England's main source of iron ore.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 98
  5. A local government district in East Sussex created in 1974, which is named after the river in East Sussex.

Forms of rother

Noun
pluralrothers
Proper noun
pluralRothers

Origin of rother

From Middle English rother, ruther, reother, from Old English hrūþer, hrȳþer, byforms of hrīþer, hrīþ (“neat; ox”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz, *hrinþaz. Cognate with Dutch rund (“bovine”), German Rind (“bovine; beef”).

From Middle English rother, from Old English rōþor. See rudder.

# For the river in South Yorkshire: Probably 'the chief river', from Middle English Roder, from Proto-Brythonic *ro + Old Welsh *duβr. # For the river in West Sussex: Back-formation from Rotherbridge. # For the river in East Sussex: Back-formation from Rotherfield. Replaced Middle English Liminel, which is cognate with River Limden.

Words formed from rother

Phrases with rother

Questions about rother

What does rother mean?
Rother means a horned animal, especially an ox.
What part of speech is rother?
Rother can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rother?
Rother is pronounced /ˈɹɒðə/.
What is the plural of rother?
The plural of rother is rothers.

Words near rother in the dictionary

  1. Rothenberg
  2. Rothenberger
  3. Rothenbergers
  4. Rothenbergs
  5. Rothenthurm
  6. rother
  7. rother nail
  8. rother nails
  9. Rotheram
  10. Rotherams
  11. Rotherbridge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rother (page history and authors); Rother (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.

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