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Glite Dictionary
🔄 To turn around 🔁 To take turns 🌱 To change plants
to rotate

to rotate

60 2.3
To take turns regularly doing a job or duty
  • verb
  • /roʊˈteɪt/
translation icon : turnarse
  • There was no process to rotate jobs among members of the group.
  • on a rotating basis
  • rotate groups
  • rotate positions

And three days before I was going to rotate out to come back home.

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Examples

  • One method to encourage involvement is to rotate the title of group leader from project to project.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Students were instructed to rotate to their next station every seven minutes.

    Academic text (2011)

  • OK, but the second alternative is to rotate the other group, right?

  • In product development, people would rotate out of programs before the vehicle launched.

    Academic text (2011)

  • I'll have you all take charge of it and rotate you on a daily basis.

    Gridlock (2017)

  • You'll be divided into groups and rotate through training stations.

    The Boys in the Boat (2023)

  • The physician or physicians then rotate among the clinics on a set schedule.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The student pairs will form a circle and rotate counterclockwise as they dance.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Starting with one genre and systematically rotating through them works just as well.

    Academic text (2013)

  • We decided to rotate the leadership roles among team members to encourage collaboration.

Synonyms

to alternate
vsto rotate
59 3.3

To take turns doing something

is about regular exchange of roles or positions rather than simple back and forth
to take turns
vsto rotate
57 1.8

Do something one after another, each person doing it in order

is about swapping roles or duties regularly rather than simple repeated actions
to spell
vsto rotate
26 6.3

Take someone's place for a short time at work

is about regular exchange of roles or duties rather than temporary relief

Antonyms

to stay put
  • Informal
133 2.0

Remain in the same place without moving

How Regular

to cycle
15 3.0
to rotate
60 2.3
alternate
34 3.9
to swap
119 2.1

Surface Forms

rotate infinitive
rotated past
rotated past participle
rotating present participle
rotates third person singular

Morphology

rotate = rot (transparent) = rot + ate

The sense 'take turns' is a direct extension of the core meaning 'to turn' (i.e., to make successive turns), formed regularly with '-ate'.

Etymology

Rotate comes from the Latin root rota 'wheel', and it helps to picture people or jobs moving around a wheel. So, to rotate roles or duties is to 'take turns' by moving through different positions like points on a wheel.