Standard Lemma guide

role

noun · 11 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • rōl
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɹəʊl/
  • Received-Pronunciation: [ɹəʊɫ]
  • Canada, General-American: /ɹoʊl/ toe-tow merger
  • Canada, General-American: [ɹoʊɫ]
  • Canada, General-American, dialectal: /ɹol/
  • California, Southern: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Connecticut Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /ɹəʉl/
  • Australian: [ɹəʉɫ]
  • Australian: [ɹɐʉɫ] some speakers
  • New-Zealand: /ɹɐʉl/
  • New-Zealand: [ɹɐʉɫ]
  • Scotland: /ɾol/
  • Wales: /ɾoːl/ without the toe–tow merger
  • South-Asia: /roːl/
  • rhymes with -əʊl
  • homophone: roll (toe–tow merger)
  • CMU ARPABET: R OW1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A character or part played by a performer or actor.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • My neighbor was the lead role in last year's village play.
  • Her dream was to get a role in a Hollywood movie, no matter how small.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The expected behaviour of an individual in a society.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The role of women has changed significantly in the last century.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The function or position of something.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Local volunteers played an important role in cleaning the beach after the oil spill.
  • What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Designation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, or privileges

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The project manager role is responsible for ensuring that everyone on the team knows and executes his or her assigned tasks.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

The function of a word in a phrase.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

In the Raku programming language, a code element akin to an interface, used for composition of classes without adding to their inheritance chain.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: object-oriented programming

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

An ancient unit of quantity, 72 sheets of parchment.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

the actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the function of a teacher
  • the government must do its part
  • play its role

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: function, office, part

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: duty

Narrower terms: capacity, hat, portfolio, stead, position, place, lieu, second fiddle

9

noun

Meaning 9

normal or customary activity of a person in a particular social setting

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • what is your role on the team?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: activity

Narrower terms: gender role, position

10

noun

Meaning 10

what something is used for

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the function of an auger is to bore holes
  • ballet is beautiful but what use is it?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: function, purpose, use

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: utility, usefulness

Narrower terms: raison d'etre

11

noun

Meaning 11

an actor's portrayal of someone in a play

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • she played the part of Desdemona

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: character, theatrical role, part, persona

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: portrayal, characterization, enactment, personation

Narrower terms: bit part, minor role, heavy, hero, ingenue, title role, name part, heroine, villain, baddie

History

Etymology

From French rôle, from Middle French rolle, from Old French role, from Medieval Latin rotulus. Doublet of roll and rotulus.

Across languages

Translations

157 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: rol — character or part
  • Arabic: دَوْر (dawr) — character or part
  • Armenian: դեր (der) — character or part
  • Azerbaijani: rol — character or part
  • Belarusian: ро́ля (rólja) — character or part
  • Bengali: ভূমিকা (bhumika) — character or part
  • Bulgarian: ро́ля (rólja) — character or part
  • Burmese: အခန်း (a.hkan:) — character or part
  • Catalan: paper — character or part
  • Chinese Cantonese: 角色 (gok3 sik1) — character or part
  • Chinese Cantonese: 角 (gok3) — character or part
  • Chinese Mandarin: 角色 (juésè) — character or part
  • Chinese Mandarin: 角 (jué) — character or part
  • Czech: role — character or part
  • Danish: rolle — character or part
  • Dutch: rol — character or part
  • Estonian: roll — character or part
  • Finnish: rooli — character or part
  • Finnish: osa — character or part
  • French: rôle — character or part
  • Galician: papel — character or part
  • Georgian: როლი (roli) — character or part
  • German: Rolle — character or part
  • Greek: ρόλος (rólos) — character or part
  • Hebrew: תַּפְקִיד (tafkíd) — character or part
  • Hindi: भूमिका (bhūmikā) — character or part
  • Hungarian: szerep — character or part
  • Icelandic: hlutverk — character or part
  • Indonesian: peranan — character or part
  • Irish: ról — character or part
  • Italian: ruolo — character or part
  • Japanese: 役 (yaku) — character or part
  • Japanese: 役柄 (yakugara) — character or part
  • Kazakh: рөл (röl) — character or part
  • Khmer: តួ (tuə) — character or part
  • Korean: 역할 (yeokhal) — character or part
  • Korean: 역 (yeok) — character or part
  • Central Kurdish: دەور (dewr) — character or part
  • Northern Kurdish: dewr — character or part
  • Kyrgyz: роль (rol) — character or part
  • Lao: ບົດບາດ (bot bāt) — character or part
  • Latvian: loma — character or part
  • Lithuanian: rolė — character or part
  • Lithuanian: vaidmuo — character or part
  • Luxembourgish: Roll — character or part
  • Macedonian: ролја (rolja) — character or part
  • Macedonian: улога (uloga) — character or part
  • Malay: peranan — character or part
  • Maltese: rwol — character or part
  • Mongolian: үүрэг (üüreg) — character or part
  • Norwegian Bokmål: rolle — character or part
  • Pashto: رول (rol) — character or part
  • Pashto: نقش (naqš) — character or part
  • Iranian Persian: رُل (rol) — character or part
  • Iranian Persian: نَقْش (naġš) — character or part
  • Polish: rola — character or part
  • Portuguese: papel — character or part
  • Romanian: rol — character or part
  • Russian: роль (rolʹ) — character or part
  • Serbo-Croatian: у̏лога — character or part
  • Serbo-Croatian: ро́ла — character or part
  • Serbo-Croatian: ȕloga — character or part
  • Serbo-Croatian: róla — character or part
  • Slovak: rola — character or part
  • Slovene: vloga — character or part
  • Spanish: papel — character or part
  • Swedish: roll — character or part
  • Tajik: рол (rol) — character or part
  • Tajik: нақш (naqš) — character or part
  • Tamil: பங்கு (paṅku) — character or part
  • Tatar: роль (rolʹ) — character or part
  • Telugu: పాత్ర (pātra) — character or part
  • Thai: บทบาท (bòt-bàat) — character or part
  • Turkish: rol — character or part
  • Turkmen: rol — character or part
  • Ukrainian: роль (rolʹ) — character or part
  • Urdu: کِرْدار (kirdār) — character or part
  • Uyghur: رول (rol) — character or part
  • Uzbek: rol — character or part
  • Vietnamese: vai — character or part
  • Vietnamese: vai trò — character or part
  • Yiddish: ראָלע (role) — character or part
  • Armenian: դեր (der) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Catalan: rol — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Finnish: asema — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Finnish: rooli — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • French: rôle — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Galician: rol — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Galician: función — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Galician: papel — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Georgian: როლი (roli) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Georgian: ფუნქცია (punkcia) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • German: Rolle — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Greek: ρόλος (rólos) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Hindi: भूमिका (bhūmikā) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Indonesian: peranan — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Irish: ról — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Japanese: 役割 (yakuwari) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Norwegian Bokmål: rolle — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Polish: rola — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Portuguese: função — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Portuguese: papel — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Russian: роль (rolʹ) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Serbo-Croatian: у̏лога — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Serbo-Croatian: ȕloga — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Slovene: vloga — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Spanish: rol — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Swedish: roll — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Thai: บทบาท (bòt-bàat) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Yiddish: ראָלע (role) — the expected behavior of an individual in a society
  • Armenian: դեր (der) — the function or position of something
  • Armenian: պաշտոն (pašton) — the function or position of something
  • Catalan: paper — the function or position of something
  • Chinese Mandarin: 任務 /任务 (rènwu) — the function or position of something
  • Finnish: virka — the function or position of something
  • Finnish: rooli — the function or position of something
  • Finnish: osa — the function or position of something
  • French: rôle — the function or position of something
  • German: Rolle — the function or position of something
  • German: Aufgabe — the function or position of something
  • German: Funktion — the function or position of something
  • Greek: ρόλος (rólos) — the function or position of something
  • Hindi: भूमिका (bhūmikā) — the function or position of something
  • Indonesian: peran — the function or position of something
  • Indonesian: tugas — the function or position of something
  • Irish: ról — the function or position of something
  • Italian: ruolo — the function or position of something
  • Japanese: 役割 (yakuwari) — the function or position of something
  • Korean: 역 (yeok) — the function or position of something
  • Korean: 직무 (jingmu) — the function or position of something
  • Norwegian Bokmål: rolle — the function or position of something
  • Occitan: ròtle — the function or position of something
  • Polish: rola — the function or position of something
  • Polish: funkcja — the function or position of something
  • Polish: pozycja — the function or position of something
  • Portuguese: função — the function or position of something
  • Portuguese: papel — the function or position of something
  • Russian: до́лжность (dólžnostʹ) — the function or position of something
  • Serbo-Croatian: у̏лога — the function or position of something
  • Serbo-Croatian: ȕloga — the function or position of something
  • Slovene: vloga — the function or position of something
  • Spanish: papel — the function or position of something
  • Swedish: roll — the function or position of something
  • Turkish: işlev — the function or position of something
  • Turkish: görev — the function or position of something
  • Turkish: rol — the function or position of something
  • Yiddish: ראָלע (role) — the function or position of something
  • Catalan: funció — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • French: fonction — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Galician: función — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Greek: ρόλος (rólos) — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Kazakh: рөл (röl) — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Polish: funkcja — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Polish: rola — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Portuguese: função — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Portuguese: papel — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
  • Swedish: funktion — (grammar) the function of a word in a phrase