Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏆 Each plays all ✉️ A group letter 🔄 Task rotation
round robin

round robin

5.5
A letter signed by many people to show a shared opinion
  • noun
  • /ˈraʊnd ˈrɑːbɪn/
translation icon : carta colectiva
  • The community sent out a round robin to gather opinions on the new park regulations.

Examples

  • The employees submitted a round robin to express their concerns.

  • Did you see the round robin letter from the parents?

  • A round robin was circulated among the students to protest the new policy.

  • The employees wrote a round robin to the manager requesting better working conditions.

  • They presented a round robin to the board, making it clear the concerns were shared by many.

  • A round robin was circulated among the committee members to agree on the proposal's final edits.

  • We all signed the round robin urging the board to reconsider their decision on the budget cuts.

Surface Forms

round robin singular
round robins plural

Morphology

round + robin

The element 'round' (one phase/turn) gives a clear clue about cycles and turn-taking, which partially signals the idea of distributing in order. However, 'robin' contributes no transparent semantic content here (it is lexically unrelated or historically arbitrary), so the full technical sense of a systematic, cyclical assignment cannot be derived reliably by a B1 learner from the constituents alone.

Etymology

Round robin may come from a way of signing a petition where people wrote their names in a circle so no one was at the top. That picture of names going round and round explains why the phrase now means 'a letter signed by many people'.