roster
Americannoun
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a list or register, esp one showing the order of people enrolled for duty
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marketing the list of advertising agencies regularly used by a particular company
verb
noun
Usage
What does roster mean? A roster is a list or register of people or things. Roster is perhaps most commonly used to refer to the official list of players on a sports team, but it can refer to many other things, including lists of military personnel and lists of academic classes. Example: We have spots on our roster for 26 players.
Etymology
Origin of roster
1720–30; < Dutch rooster list, roster, literally, gridiron, in reference to the ruled paper used, equivalent to roost ( en ) to roast + -er -er 1
Explanation
If you see your name on the roster of players for the new softball team, then congratulations! Better start practicing, because you’re on the list of players who made the team. The word roster originally meant a list of the names, duties, and schedule of members of the military. That meaning is still in use, but today, a roster is more likely to be a list of players on your favorite team, a list of artists whose artwork appears regularly in a certain gallery, or a list of participants, such as an airline that posts its roster of flight crew members for the red-eye to Phoenix.
Vocabulary lists containing roster
Baseball: A Lexicon
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Walk Two Moons
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Words for the World Series
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Their production needs need to expand and shrink like an accordion,” said Sherry Wong, CEO of Roster.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 12, 2025
Boston has less than $190 million committed to its Opening Day roster, according to Roster Resource.
From Washington Post • Dec. 30, 2022
Roster changes in the OWL are usually announced via tweet, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary.
From The Verge • Aug. 10, 2022
Roster sizes in Major League Baseball shrank Monday, and the Mets made the most notable cut, parting ways with second baseman Robinson Canó, who has struggled in the twilight of his career.
From New York Times • May 2, 2022
"This is what I call my Roster of the Faithful," he said, and looked searchingly into the face of the patriarch, whose glum reticence puzzled him.
From A Dream of Empire Or, The House of Blennerhassett by Venable, William Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
