Origin: Latin suffix -ate
Rotate has 8 different meanings across 1 category:
turn outward
"These birds can splay out their toes"
"ballet dancers can rotate their legs out by 90 degrees"
plant or grow in a fixed cyclic order of succession
"We rotate the crops so as to maximize the use of the soil"
To spin, turn, or revolve.
"The planet rotates on its axis once every twenty-four hours."
In plain English: To rotate means to turn around and move back to your starting point, kind of how you spin on a chair before stopping.
"We rotate the seating arrangement every week so everyone gets to sit by different friends."
Usage: Use rotate to describe an object spinning around its own center axis rather than revolving around another body. It is often confused with "revolve," which specifically refers to orbiting something else.
Having the parts spreading out like a wheel; wheel-shaped.
"The rotating ceiling fan has blades that spread out from the center in a distinct wheel shape."
"The rotating fan blades create a soothing breeze in the room."
The word rotate comes from the Latin verb rotare, meaning "to revolve," which was formed by combining rota ("wheel") with a verb-making suffix. It entered English through French, carrying its original sense of turning around an axis just as it does today.