rotate
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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rotates,
present (3rd person singular)
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rotated,
past participle, past
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rotating
present participle
-
to cause to turn around an axis or center point; revolve.
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to cause to go through a cycle of changes; cause to pass or follow in a fixed routine of succession.
to rotate farm crops.
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to replace (a person, troops, etc.) by another or others, usually according to a schedule or plan.
verb (used without object)
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rotates,
present (3rd person singular)
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rotated,
past participle, past
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rotating
present participle
-
to turn around on or as if on an axis.
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to proceed in a fixed routine of succession.
The sentries rotated in keeping watch.
adjective
verb
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to turn or cause to turn around an axis, line, or point; revolve or spin
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to follow or cause to follow a set order or sequence
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(of a position, presidency, etc) to pass in turn from one eligible party to each of the other eligible parties
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(of staff) to replace or be replaced in turn
adjective
Synonym Usage
See turn.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonrotatableadjective
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nonrotatingadjective
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rotatableadjective
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unrotatedadjective
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unrotatingadjective
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rotatablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rotatesimple
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rotatessimple
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have rotatedperfect
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has rotatedperfect
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am rotatingprogressive
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are rotatingprogressive
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is rotatingprogressive
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have been rotatingperfect progressive
-
has been rotatingperfect progressive
Past
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rotatedsimple
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had rotatedperfect
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was rotatingprogressive
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were rotatingprogressive
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had been rotatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rotate1
First recorded in 1800–10; from Latin rotātus (past participle of rotāre “to cause to spin, roll, move in a circle”), equivalent to rot(a) “wheel” + -ātus -ate 1
Origin of rotate2
1775–85; < Latin rot ( a ) wheel + -ate 1
Explanation
Rotate means to circle around a center point. Wheels on a car rotate, planets rotate, and if you're an ice skater, you rotate on the blade of a skate when you do your spins. Rotate can also mean that you take turns performing a job. If you, Jim, and Shelia all got the same amount of votes in the class election, you could rotate the role of treasurer, meaning the position would pass from one to another in a regular pattern. Rotate can also refer to other things that are passed along in a regular order. You might rotate lawn duties with your brother — that means you mow the lawn one week and he mows it the next.
Vocabulary lists containing rotate
Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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Earth and the Solar System - Introductory
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Fish in a Tree
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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.
See Examples For:
The researchers used circularly polarized X-rays, which have electric fields that rotate in either a left-handed or right-handed direction as the light travels.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
Oldies radio tended to rotate through the same pool of songs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
And, with Arteta aiming to defend the title and have European success this time out, there will be a lot of games for him to rotate his many options.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
That could rotate plenty of borrowers into a more favorable “band” that gets them lower upfront fees and better borrowing rates.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026
Inhabitants of those islands developed intensive dryland agriculture requiring a heavy input of labor to build terraces, carry out mulching, rotate crops, reduce or eliminate fallow periods, and maintain tree plantations.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The old two-track Portal Bridge, which runs low across the Hackensack River, has a mechanism that disconnects and rotates part of the bridge to let ships pass by.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026
Sarah Helzer, the team’s alternate candidate, rotates between stations to learn each of her teammates’ techniques, so she can be prepared to take over in case of an emergency or injury.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026
Keeping the head steady while the rest of the body rotates may help the animals maintain control and navigate effectively during their rapid escapes.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026
The naming of tropical storms and hurricanes is a job for the World Meteorological Organization, which rotates them out every six years and retires them after a given storm causes too much destruction.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
Up into the air her hand goes, and she rotates this way and that.
From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone
AI bellwethers like Korean and Japanese semiconductor plays recoiled as traders rotated into consumer and internet plays listed in Hong Kong and China.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026
By pure chance, the ball slipped into his right hand with the seams rotated in a slightly different way than he was used to.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Webb's exceptionally sensitive instruments made this possible by detecting extremely small changes in the object's brightness as different parts of its atmosphere rotated into view.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Theagreement replaces the "Wheel Deal" system, which rotated the gala among major networks like ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
I felt a hard piece of lead, the size of a marble, swim inside Papá’s knee as he rotated his leg.
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
The bloc's rotating chair will at the end of this year pass from the Philippines to Singapore, a city-state analysts say opposes normalising Myanmar ties.
From Barron's ● Nov. 14, 2026
Working with his HR partner, Melissa Kremer, he said, “we had multiple internal candidates that we were rotating into different roles so the board could see them in different enterprise leadership positions.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Although spin is not literally an electron rotating like a tiny ball, it behaves in certain ways as though the electron has its own angular momentum.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
It speculates it is due to investors rotating out of trades related to artificial intelligence, as opposed to stellar updates on banks’ profit outlooks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
TimeStar rose, wincing, rotating his right shoulder so it made cracking sounds.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
