Rote

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ɹəʊt/
• US IPA: /roÊŠt/
• Rhymes: -əʊt

From Middle English, origin uncertain. Likely from the phrase bi ("by") rote ("heart"), c. 1300. Some have proposed a relationship either with Old French rote/rute ("route"), or Latin rota ("wheel") (see rotary), but the Oxford English Dictionary calls both suggestions groundless.

Full definition of rote

Noun

1. The process of learning or committing something to memory through mechanical repetition, usually by hearing and repeating aloud, often without full attention to comprehension or thought for the meaning.They didn’t have copies of the music for everyone, so most of us had to learn the song by rote.
• 2009, Jim Holt, ''Got Poetry?But memorize them we did, in big painful chunks, by rote repetition.
2. Mechanical routine; a fixed, habitual, repetitive, or mechanical course of procedure.The pastoral scenes from those commercials don’t bear too much resemblance to the rote of daily life on a farm.

Usage notes

Commonly found in the phrase "by rote" and in attributive use: "rote learning", "rote memorization", and so on.

Often used pejoratively in comparison with "deeper" learning that leads to "understanding".

Derived terms

• rotelike
• rotely

Adjective

1. By repetition or practice.
• 2000, Ami Klin, Asperger syndrome‎, The former may be seen as a more rote form of learning, contrasting with the latter which appears to include "executive" aspects

Verb

1. (obsolete) To go out by rotation or succession; to rotate.
2. (transitive) To learn or repeat by rote.

c. 1600, from Old Norse rót ("tossing, pitching (of sea)") n, perhaps related to rauta ("to roar").

Noun

1. (rare) The roar of the surf; the sound of waves breaking on the shore.

Old English rote, probably of German origin; compare Middle High German rotte, and English crowd ("a kind of violin").

Noun

1. A kind of guitar, the notes of which were produced by a small wheel or wheel-like arrangement; an instrument similar to the hurdy-gurdy.
• Sir Walter Scottextracting mistuned dirges from their harps, crowds, and rotes

Anagrams

• tore