role

English Online Dictionary. What means role‎? What does role mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: rōl
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹəʊl/, [ɹəʊɫ]
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (toe-tow merger) /ɹoʊl/, [ɹoʊɫ], (dialectal) /ɹol/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹəʉl/, /ɹəʉɫ/, /ɹɐʉl/, [ɹɐʉɫ]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɹɐʉl/, [ɹɐʉɫ]
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ɾoːl/
• Rhymes: -əʊl
• Homophone: roll

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• rôle

Noun

role (plural roles)

2. A character or part played by a performer or actor.

4. The expected behaviour of an individual in a society.

6. The function or position of something.
8. Designation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, or privileges
9. (grammar) The function of a word in a phrase.
10. (object-oriented programming) In the Raku programming language, a code element akin to an interface, used for composition of classes without adding to their inheritance chain.

Hyponyms

• subrole

Derived terms

Collocations

Descendants

• → Spanish: rol

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

role (plural roles)

1. (historical) An ancient unit of quantity, 72 sheets of parchment.

References

• role on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• eorl, Orël, orle, lore, Orle, relo, Roel, Orel

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈrolɛ]
• Rhymes: -olɛ
• Hyphenation: ro‧le

Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Rolle, from Old French rolle, role (“parchment scroll, inventory”), from Latin rotula, rotulus (“little wheel”), which is a diminutive of rota (“wheel”).

Noun

role f

1. role, part (of an actor) [19th c.]

   Synonyms: úloha, part

2. lines (spoken text of an actor playing a part)

   Synonym: part

3. role (e.g. of a person in a society)

   Synonym: úloha

4. (linguistics) role (function of a constituent in a clause)
5. scroll [19th c.]

   Synonym: svitek

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Czech rolí, from Proto-Slavic *orlьja, from *orati.

Noun

role f

1. (obsolete, literary) field (area to grow crops) [14th c.]

   Synonym: pole

2. old unit of field measurement
3. (obsolete, literary) area, domain (of activity)

   Synonyms: obor, okruh

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “role”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “role”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “role”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

References

Anagrams

• orel, orle

Galician

Verb

role

1. inflection of rolar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Old French

Etymology

from Medieval Latin rotulus.

Noun

role oblique singular, m (oblique plural roles, nominative singular roles, nominative plural role)

1. roll; scroll (rolled up document)

Descendants

• → English: roll
• French: rôle
  • → English: role

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (role, supplement)

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɔ.lɛ/
• Rhymes: -ɔlɛ
• Syllabification: ro‧le

Noun

role

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of rola

Further reading

• role in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Verb

role

1. inflection of rolar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

role

1. inflection of rolar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative