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• rota
  rota

  noun
• Rota
  Rota

  noun

  Nino 1911–1979, Italian composer.

rota

¹ American  

[roh-tuh] / ˈroʊ tə /

noun

1. Chiefly British.

   1. a round or rotation of duties; a period of work or duty taken in rotation with others.

   2. an agenda or circuit of sporting events, as a round of golf tournaments, played in different localities throughout the year.

2. a roster.

3. Official Name Sacra Romana Rota or Sacred Roman Rota.  (initial capital letter) the ecclesiastical tribunal in Rome, constituting the court of final appeal.

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rota ² American  

[roh-tuh] / ˈroʊ tə /

noun

1. rote.

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Rota ³ American  

[raw-tah] / ˈrɔ tɑ /

noun

1. Nino 1911–1979, Italian composer.

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Rota ¹ British  

/ ˈrəʊtə /

noun

1. RC Church the supreme ecclesiastical tribunal for judging cases brought before the Holy See

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rota ² British  

/ ˈrəʊtə /

noun

1. a register of names showing the order in which people take their turn to perform certain duties

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Etymology

Origin of rota

First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin: “wheel”

Explanation

A rota is a schedule that lists who will do a particular job and when they will do it. If you can't remember what day you're supposed to volunteer at the library, you should check the rota. You can also call a rota a roster. Win a spot on the soccer team or chess club, and you'll find your name on a rota: these are lists of team members, or schedules of upcoming competitions. At work, a rota tells you what shifts you'll be responsible for working next week. And at home, your parents' cleaning rota may assign tasks to each member of the family — just be glad it's not your turn to scour the bathroom.

Example Sentences

Earlier in March, Sánchez said Spain had denied the US use of the two jointly run military bases at Rota and Morón, both in Andalusia.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

US forces use the Rota naval base and Moron air base in southern Spain under an agreement signed in 1953 under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

From Barron's • Mar. 4, 2026

“Everything is harder,” said Njord Rota, a former military pilot who tested experimental helicopters for Lockheed Martin and now helps run Ravco, a high-altitude helicopter training school in Colorado.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

The black humor and arch-fabulism of what Smerilli and Schimberg concocted took inspiration from opera and old Italian movies — they both love composer Nino Rota — as well as Duke Ellington and Bernard Herrmann.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 20, 2024

United States scientists have had some encouraging early results with the melon fly and the oriental and Mediterranean fruit flies in laboratory tests in Hawaii and field tests on the remote island of Rota.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Related Words

• agenda
• inventory
• record
• schedule
• table