Rotated

How to spell rotated

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rotated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rotated mean?

1. verbTurned around a central point or axis, or moved through a repeating sequence of positions or turns.

Rotated in a sentence

• The engineer rotated the valve a quarter turn to release the pressure.

• The manager rotated the weekend shifts so nobody worked every Saturday.

Where does rotated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb rotare, meaning 'to turn in a circle' or 'to revolve', which itself was built directly on the noun rota, the ordinary Latin word for a wheel. English borrowed the verb 'rotate' in the early 1700s, at first chiefly in scientific and astronomical writing to describe a body turning on its axis. The sense soon broadened to cover any kind of taking of turns, such as crops, staff duties, or stock being cycled through in sequence. The same rota root still turns up in everyday English: a duty 'rota' is literally a wheel of turns, and the 'rotor' of a helicopter spins on the same idea. Because the spelling keeps that single Latin t and adds the regular -ed ending, the trap is simply remembering there is one t, not two, before the -ed.

How the word is built

• rot- (from Latin rota: wheel)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)