roulette

American  

[roo-let] / ruˈlɛt /

noun

1. a game of chance played at a table marked off with numbers from 1 to 36, one or two zeros, and several other sections affording the players a variety of betting opportunities, and having in the center a revolving, dishlike device roulettewheel into which a small ball is spun to come to rest finally in one of the 37 or 38 compartments, indicating the winning number and its characteristics, as odd or even, red or black, and between 1 and 18 or 19 and 36.

2. a small wheel, especially one with sharp teeth, mounted in a handle, for making lines of marks, dots, or perforations.

   engravers' roulettes; a roulette for perforating sheets of postage stamps.

3. Philately. a row of short cuts, in which no paper is removed, made between individual stamps to permit their ready separation.

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verb (used with object)

rouletted, rouletting

1. to mark, impress, or perforate with a roulette.

roulette British  

/ ruːˈlɛt /

noun

1. a gambling game in which a ball is dropped onto a spinning horizontal wheel divided into 37 or 38 coloured and numbered slots, with players betting on the slot into which the ball will fall

2. 1. a toothed wheel for making a line of perforations

   2. a tiny slit made by such a wheel on a sheet of stamps as an aid to tearing it apart

3. a curve generated by a point on one curve rolling on another

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verb

1. to use a roulette on (something), as in engraving, making stationery, etc

Etymology

Origin of roulette

1725–35; < French, diminutive of rouelle wheel. See rowel

Explanation

Roulette is a gambling game, where a little ball rolls around a wheel and people bet on what number it will land on. Go lucky 7! Outside a casino, roulette can refer to an unnecessarily dangerous gamble. It doesn't take any skill — just a whole lot of luck — to win at roulette. The wheel itself is called a roulette wheel. The game was invented in eighteenth century France, and you can still play it in casinos all over the world (though you have to be over 21 to enter those casinos). Russian roulette is a game of chance where people basically bet their lives. In French, roulette means "small wheel," from the Latin root rota, "wheel."

Example Sentences

Appeared in the April 14, 2026, print edition as 'Playing National Security Roulette'.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

One lorry driver said they needed to be made safer and that driving them could feel like "Russian Roulette".

From BBC • Jan. 29, 2024

Then Sankaram swung into one of the meatier passages written for her in Braxton’s Composition No. 380 — the opera “Trillium J,” which was recorded and performed in 2014 at Roulette in Brooklyn.

From New York Times • Jun. 16, 2023

"Tulare Lake is playing Russian Roulette with flooding, and they just lost," said Deirdre Des Jardins, an independent researcher and consultant who has studied flood risk in the Central Valley.

From Salon • Apr. 18, 2023

Roulette wheels spun behind Lefty’s eyes as he sped toward the West Side.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Related Words

• poker