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PlainSpell

rote

/ɹoʊt/noun, adjective, verb

rote is spelled R-O-T-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rote means “Mechanical routine; a fixed, habitual, repetitive, or mechanical course of procedure” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rote is rotes.

How many letters and syllables are in rote?

Letters4: R-O-T-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 32,393rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is rote?

Rote appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce rote?

  • UK /ɹəʊt/
  • US /ɹoʊt/

Rote has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-rote.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with rote?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rote from its last stressed vowel (/oʊt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tore, toer.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of rote

  • more rote comparative
  • most rote superlative
  • rotes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • roting participle, present
  • roted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does rote mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    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.

  3. 3

    Synonym of crowd.

  4. 4

    rareThe roar of the surf; the sound of waves breaking on the shore.

adjective

  1. 1

    By repetition or practice and without much thought.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo go out by rotation or succession; to rotate.

    The Model of it was, That a third Part of the Senate or Parliament, ſhould rote out by Ballot every Year; […].

  2. 2

    To learn or repeat by rote.

    [Volumnia to Corolianus] "Because that it lies you on to speak/ to th' people, not by your own instruction,/ Nor by th' matter which your heart prompts you,/ But with such words that are but roted in/ your tongue,..." Coriolanus III.ii.52-5

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Rote in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchapprentissage par cœur (process of committing to memory)
GermanAuswendiglernen (process of committing to memory), Routine, Gewohnheit (mechanical routine), auswendig gelernt (Translations)
Portuguesememorização (process of committing to memory)
Spanishde memoria, de memorieta, memorismo, memorización (process of committing to memory), rutina (mechanical routine), memorístico (Translations)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rote come from?

From Middle English rote (“custom, habit, wont, condition, state”), further origin unknown. Found in the Middle English phrase bi rote (“by heart, according to form, expertly”), c. 1300. Some have proposed a relationship either with Old French rote/rute (“route”), or Latin rota (“wheel”) (see rotary), but the OED calls both suggestions groundless. Another explanation might be the metaphorical comparison between anything repetitive and playing the rote.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after rote