Rotary

How to spell rotary

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rotary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rotary mean?

1. adjectiveTurning or revolving around a central point or axis.
2. nounA circular road junction where traffic moves around a central island.

Rotary in a sentence

• adjective

  The old phone had a rotary dial that clicked as it turned.

• noun

  Drivers entering the rotary must yield to vehicles already circling.

• adjective

  The workshop uses a rotary saw to cut through thick timber.

• noun

  The town added a rotary to ease congestion at the busy intersection.

Where does rotary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun rota, which simply meant 'wheel', the same root that gave us 'rotate', 'rotor', and even 'roundabout' thinking. Medieval Latin formed the adjective rotarius, 'pertaining to wheels', from which English drew 'rotary' in the seventeenth century to describe anything that turns about an axis. The sense steadily widened from literal wheels to any mechanism whose motion is circular, such as a rotary engine or a rotary telephone dial. In North American usage the word also came to name a circular road junction, because traffic moves around it as if on a wheel. The single 't' and the unstressed '-ary' ending are the spelling traps here, since the rhythm of the word tempts writers toward 'rotery' or a doubled 't', neither of which the steady Latin rota supports.

How the word is built

• rot- (from Latin rota: wheel)
• -ary (adjective/noun suffix meaning 'relating to')