Rounder

How to spell rounder

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rounder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rounder mean?

1. adjectiveMore round in shape than something else.
2. nounIn the game of rounders, a complete circuit of the bases scored by a batter.

Rounder in a sentence

• adjective

  The new design made the buttons noticeably rounder than the old ones.

• noun

  She struck the ball hard and ran a full rounder before the fielders reacted.

• adjective

  Her face looked rounder after the weight she gained over winter.

• noun

  The team needed one more rounder to win the school match.

Where does rounder come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word 'round' came into English in the 1200s from Old French roont or reond, which had developed from the Latin rotundus, meaning 'circular' or literally 'wheel-shaped'. That Latin adjective was itself built on rota, the ordinary word for 'wheel', a root that also survives in 'rotate' and 'rotund'. The ending '-er' has two jobs here: as a comparative suffix inherited from Old English it turns 'round' into 'rounder' (more round), and as an agent or noun suffix it forms names for people and things, which is how the game term and the old slang sense for a dissolute person arose. The game of rounders, a bat-and-ball pastime that is an ancestor of baseball, lent its name to the single circuit of the bases scored by a striker. Because the word is simply 'round' with a familiar everyday ending, its spelling rarely strays.

How the word is built

• round (from Latin rotundus, wheel-shaped)
• -er (comparative suffix, or agent/noun suffix)