Standard Lemma guide

rotation

noun · 12 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.

  • General-American: /ɹoʊˈteɪʃən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪʃən
  • CMU ARPABET: R OW0 T EY1 SH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The act of turning around a centre or an axis.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • The earth's rotation about its axis is responsible for its being slightly oblate rather than a sphere.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A single complete cycle around a centre or an axis.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • Earth's moon completes a rotation every twenty-seven days or so.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A regular variation in a sequence, such as to even out wear, or people taking turns in a task; a duty roster.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • Applying crop rotation to a field avoids depleting soil nutrients the way repeated use of a single crop might do.
  • In rotation, each member of the group would be responsible for the beacon fire.
  • The medical resident finished a two-week rotation in pediatrics and began one in orthopaedics.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Тhe movement of investments between different sectors of an economy, or styles of investing, based on anticipated changes in the economic or market cycle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: business, finance

Examples

  • Sector rotation attempts to capitalize on the tendency of certain sectors to outperform others during specific economic phases, while style rotation involves shifting investments between different investment styles, such as moving from growth stocks to value stocks.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

An operation on a metric space that is a continuous isometry and fixes at least one point.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: geometry, mathematics, sciences

Examples

  • The function mapping (x,y) to (−y,x) is a rotation.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

The set of starting pitchers of a team.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: ball-games, baseball, games, hobbies, lifestyle, sports

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

The step during takeoff when the pilot commands the vehicle to lift the nose wheel off the ground during the takeoff roll. (see also: V2)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: aeronautics, aerospace, aviation, business, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

Repeated play of songs on a radio station, advertisements on a television channel, etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • The new single enjoyed heavy rotation on MTV.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

noun

Meaning 9

the act of rotating as if on an axis

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the rotation of the dancer kept time with the music

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rotary motion

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: motion, movement, move, motility

Narrower terms: circumvolution, feather, feathering, gyration, whirling, pivot, pronation, spin, twirl, twist, twisting, whirl, spiral, supination, turn, wind, winding, turnout

10

noun

Meaning 10

a planned recurrent sequence (of crops or personnel etc.)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • crop rotation makes a balanced demand on the fertility of the soil
  • the manager had only four starting pitchers in his rotation

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: sequence, chronological sequence, succession, successiveness, chronological succession

11

noun

Meaning 11

a single complete turn (axial or orbital)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the plane made three rotations before it crashed
  • the revolution of the earth about the sun takes one year

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: revolution, gyration

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: turning, turn

Narrower terms: dextrorotation, clockwise rotation, levorotation, counterclockwise rotation, axial rotation, axial motion, roll, orbital rotation, orbital motion, spin

12

noun

Meaning 12

(mathematics) a transformation in which the coordinate axes are rotated by a fixed angle about the origin

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: transformation

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rotātiō. By surface analysis, rotate + -ion.

Across languages

Translations

92 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: rotasie — act of turning around a centre
  • Albanian: rrotullim — act of turning around a centre
  • Amharic: ሽክርክር (šəkrəkr) — act of turning around a centre
  • Arabic: دَوْرَة (dawra) — act of turning around a centre
  • Armenian: պտույտ (ptuyt) — act of turning around a centre
  • Belarusian: вярчэ́нне (vjarčénnje) — act of turning around a centre
  • Bulgarian: върте́не (vǎrténe) — act of turning around a centre
  • Chinese Mandarin: 迴轉 /回转 (huízhuǎn) — act of turning around a centre
  • Chinese Mandarin: 旋轉 /旋转 — act of turning around a centre
  • Chinese Mandarin: 自轉 /自转 (zìzhuàn) — act of turning around a centre
  • Dutch: rotatie — act of turning around a centre
  • Finnish: pyöriminen — act of turning around a centre
  • French: rotation — act of turning around a centre
  • Galician: rotación — act of turning around a centre
  • German: Rotation — act of turning around a centre
  • Greek: περιστροφή (peristrofí) — act of turning around a centre
  • Hindi: घूर्णन (ghūrṇan) — act of turning around a centre
  • Indonesian: putaran — act of turning around a centre
  • Indonesian: rotasi — act of turning around a centre
  • Italian: rotazione — act of turning around a centre
  • Japanese: 回転 (kaiten) — act of turning around a centre
  • Japanese: 自転 (jiten) — act of turning around a centre
  • Kazakh: айналу (ainalu) — act of turning around a centre
  • Korean: 순환 (sunhwan) — act of turning around a centre
  • Latin: rotatio — act of turning around a centre
  • Malay: putaran — act of turning around a centre
  • Malayalam: തിരിയല് (tiriyal) — act of turning around a centre
  • Malayalam: ഭ്രമണം (bhramaṇaṁ) — act of turning around a centre
  • Māori: tāwhirowhironga — act of turning around a centre
  • Old English: ymbhwyrft — act of turning around a centre
  • Old English: wendung — act of turning around a centre
  • Persian: چَرْخِش (čarxeš) — act of turning around a centre
  • Polish: obracanie — act of turning around a centre
  • Portuguese: rotação — act of turning around a centre
  • Russian: враще́ние (vraščénije) — act of turning around a centre
  • Spanish: rotación — act of turning around a centre
  • Swedish: rotation — act of turning around a centre
  • Tagalog: inog — act of turning around a centre
  • Telugu: భ్రమణం (bhramaṇaṁ) — act of turning around a centre
  • Thai: การหมุน (gaan-mǔn) — act of turning around a centre
  • Turkish: devir — act of turning around a centre
  • Turkish: deveran — act of turning around a centre
  • Turkish: dönüş — act of turning around a centre
  • Turkish: rotasyon — act of turning around a centre
  • Ottoman Turkish: چرخ (çarh) — act of turning around a centre
  • Ottoman Turkish: اداره (idâre) — act of turning around a centre
  • Ottoman Turkish: دوره (devre) — act of turning around a centre
  • Ukrainian: оберта́ння (obertánnja) — act of turning around a centre
  • Ukrainian: верті́ння (vertínnja) — act of turning around a centre
  • Armenian: պտույտ (ptuyt) — single cycle of turning
  • Belarusian: абаро́т (abarót) — single cycle of turning
  • Bulgarian: оборо́т (oborót) — single cycle of turning
  • Chinese Mandarin: 旋轉 /旋转 (xuánzhuǎn) — single cycle of turning
  • Dutch: draaiing — single cycle of turning
  • Finnish: pyörähdys — single cycle of turning
  • French: tour — single cycle of turning
  • German: Umdrehung — single cycle of turning
  • Greek: στροφή (strofí) — single cycle of turning
  • Italian: rotazione — single cycle of turning
  • Italian: giro completo — single cycle of turning
  • Italian: rivoluzione — single cycle of turning
  • Italian: ciclo completo — single cycle of turning
  • Japanese: 回転 (kaiten) — single cycle of turning
  • Korean: 회전 (hoejeon) — single cycle of turning
  • Polish: obrót — single cycle of turning
  • Portuguese: rotação — single cycle of turning
  • Russian: оборо́т (oborót) — single cycle of turning
  • Russian: вито́к (vitók) — single cycle of turning
  • Swedish: varv — single cycle of turning
  • Tagalog: inog — single cycle of turning
  • Turkish: devir — single cycle of turning
  • Turkish: dönüş — single cycle of turning
  • Ottoman Turkish: دوره (devre) — single cycle of turning
  • Ukrainian: оборо́т (oborót) — single cycle of turning
  • Ukrainian: о́берт (óbert) — single cycle of turning
  • Ukrainian: вито́к (vytók) — single cycle of turning
  • Belarusian: чаргава́нне (čarhavánnje) — regular variation in a sequence
  • Bulgarian: реду́ване (redúvane) — regular variation in a sequence
  • Finnish: kierto — regular variation in a sequence
  • Greek: στροφή (strofí) — regular variation in a sequence
  • Italian: rotazione — regular variation in a sequence
  • Italian: rotazione delle colture — regular variation in a sequence
  • Russian: чередова́ние (čeredovánije) — regular variation in a sequence
  • Ukrainian: чергува́ння (čerhuvánnja) — regular variation in a sequence
  • Armenian: պտույտ (ptuyt) — isometry
  • Dutch: rotatie — isometry
  • Finnish: kierto — isometry
  • Greek: περιστροφή (peristrofí) — isometry
  • Māori: hurihanga — isometry
  • Russian: поворо́т (povorót) — isometry
  • Swedish: rotation — isometry
  • Vietnamese: phép quay — isometry
Real reading context

rotation in complete knowledge articles

Instant centre of rotation Language & communication · Challenging · 33 uses 2D rotation Ideas & learning · Advanced · 14 uses Édgar González (pitcher) People & society · Developing · 5 uses 856 Backlunda Places & the world · Advanced · 3 uses Tatsia Arts & music · Accessible · 2 uses Goodbye (Night Ranger song) Arts & music · Accessible · 1 uses