rote


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

rote

mechanical or habitual repetition: Try to learn your multiplication table by rote.
Not to be confused with:
wrote – past tense of write: I wrote a letter to you.

rote 1

 (rōt)
n.
1. A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension: learn by rote.
2. Mechanical routine.
[Middle English.]
rote adj.

rote 2

 (rōt)
n.
The sound of surf breaking on the shore.
[Probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse rauta, to roar.]

rote 3

 (rōt)
n.
A medieval stringed instrument variably identified with a lyre, lute, or harp.
[Middle English, from Old French, probably of Germanic origin.]

rote

(rəʊt)
n
1. a habitual or mechanical routine or procedure
2. by rote by repetition; by heart (often in the phrase learn by rote)
[C14: origin unknown]

rote

(rəʊt)
n
(Instruments) an ancient violin-like musical instrument; crwth
[C13: from Old French rote, of Germanic origin; related to Old High German rotta, Middle Dutch rotte]

rote1

(roʊt)

n.
routine; a fixed, habitual, or mechanical course of procedure.
Idioms:
by rote, from memory, without thought of the meaning; in a mechanical way: to learn a language by rote.
[1275–1325; Middle English; of obscure orig.]

rote2

(roʊt)

n.
crowd 2.
[1350–1400; Middle English < Old French < Frankish *hrota (compare Old High German hruozza); akin to crowd2]

rote3

(roʊt)

n.
the sound of the surf.
[1600–10; perhaps < Old Norse rauta roar]
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.rote - memorization by repetition
rote learning
committal to memory, memorisation, memorization - learning so as to be able to remember verbatim; "the actor's memorization of his lines"

rote

noun
by rote automatically, by heart, parrot-fashion, without thinking, mechanically, mindlessly, unthinkingly You are merely reciting facts you learned by rote.
Translations

rote

[rəʊt]
A. N by rote → de memoria
to learn sth by rote → aprender algo a fuerza de repetirlo
B. CPD rote learning N rote learning was the fashion → era costumbre aprender las cosas a fuerza de repetirlas

rote

n by rote (learn) → auswendig; recite, teach → mechanisch

rote

[rəʊt] n to learn sth by rote → imparare qc a memoria
rote learning → l'imparare m a memoria
Mentioned in ?
References in classic literature ?
The Scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; it is not said, The fool hath thought in his heart; so as he rather saith it, by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it.
View in context
To say the truth, perfect beauty in both sexes is a more irresistible object than it is generally thought; for, notwithstanding some of us are contented with more homely lots, and learn by rote (as children to repeat what gives them no idea) to despise outside, and to value more solid charms; yet I have always observed, at the approach of consummate beauty, that these more solid charms only shine with that kind of lustre which the stars have after the rising of the sun.
View in context
Wylie had learnt by rote that the whole duty of a lady is to be graceful, charitable, helpful, modest, and disinterested whilst awaiting passively whatever lot these virtues may induce.
View in context
And as he looked at the unpracticed mouth and lips, he thought that such a daughter of the soil could only have caught up the sentiment by rote. She went on peeling the lords and ladies till Clare, regarding for a moment the wave-like curl of her lashes as they dropped with her bent gaze on her soft cheek, lingeringly went away.
View in context
By all the others it was mentioned with regret; and his merits honoured with due gradation of feeling-- from the sincerity of Edmund's too partial regard, to the unconcern of his mother speaking entirely by rote. Mrs.
View in context
Here the class was reciting a lesson from an abstruse text-book on economics, reciting it by rote, with so obvious a failure to assimilate it that the waste of labour was pitiful.
View in context
For a moment Tarzan thought that by some strange freak of fate a miracle had saved him, but when he realized the ease with which the girl had, single-handed, beaten off twenty gorilla-like males, and an instant later, as he saw them again take up their dance about him while she addressed them in a singsong monotone, which bore every evidence of rote, he came to the conclusion that it was all but a part of the ceremony of which he was the central figure.
View in context
The rapid transit is poetry and art: the moon but a tedious, dry body, moving by rote. But these are private opinions, for, in the business of literature, the conditions are reversed.
View in context
The Friar, half-drunk, half-sober, had huddled a friar's frock over his green cassock, and now summoning together whatever scraps of learning he had acquired by rote in former days, ``Holy father,'' said he, ``Deus faciat salvam benignitatem vestram You are welcome to the greenwood.''
View in context
As in repeating a well-known song, so in instincts, one action follows another by a sort of rhythm; if a person be interrupted in a song, or in repeating anything by rote, he is generally forced to go back to recover the habitual train of thought: so P.
View in context
Grewgious issued with his usual air of reading an inventory, or repeating a lesson, or doing anything else by rote. Bazzard, after drawing out the round table, withdrew to execute them.
View in context
What was understood to be his education was simply the practice of reading, writing, and spelling, carried on by an elaborate appliance of unintelligible ideas, and by much failure in the effort to learn by rote.
View in context

Dictionary browser ?
Full browser ?