Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Role

Role

,

Rôle

,
Noun.
[F. See
Roll
.]
A part, or character, performed by an actor in a drama; hence, a part of function taken or assumed by any one;
as, he has now taken the
role
of philanthropist
.
Title role
,
the part, or character, which gives the title to a play, as the part of Hamlet in the play of that name.

Definition 2024


role

role

See also: rolé and rôle

English

Alternative forms

Noun

role (plural roles)

  1. A character or part played by a performer or actor.
    My neighbor was the lead role in last year's village play.
    Her dream was to get a role in a Hollywood movie, no matter how small.
  2. The expected behaviour of an individual in a society.
    The role of women has changed significantly in the last century.
  3. The function or position of something.
    Local volunteers played an important role in cleaning the beach after the oil spill.
    What rôle does the wax in your earhole fulfill?
    • 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.
  4. Designation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and attitudes
    The project manager role is responsible for ensuring that everyone on the team knows and executes his or her assigned tasks.
  5. (grammar): The function of a word in a phrase.
    • 1984, David M. Perlmutter, Carol G. Rosen, Studies in relational grammar: Volume 2
      Examining these verbs one by one, what one finds is that Auxiliary Selection does correlate in the expected way with the two kinds of optional transitivity, confirming that with each predicate, one semantic role has a fixed link with initial 1-hood, another with initial 2-hood.

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams


Czech

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈrolɛ/
  • Rhymes: -olɛ
  • Hyphenation: ro‧le

Etymology 1

From German Rolle, from Old French rolle, role (parchment scroll, inventory), from Latin rotula, rotulus (little wheel), which is a

dimunitive of rota (wheel).[1]

Noun

role f

  1. role, part (of an actor) [19th c.]
  2. lines (spoken text of an actor playing a part)
  3. role (e. g. of a person in a society)
  4. (linguistics) role (function of a constituent in a clause)
  5. scroll [19th c.]
Declension
Derived terms
Related terms
Synonyms

Etymology 2

From Proto-Slavic *orlьja, from*orati.[2]

Noun

role f

  1. (obsolete, literary) field (area to grow crops) [14th c.]
  2. old unit of field measurement
  3. (obsolete, literary) area, domain (of activity)
    • 1910, Antonín Zoglmann, “Paměti starého učitele. (II.)”, in Český lid, volume XIX, Praha: F. Šimáček, page 412–418:
      […] horlivý, tichý pracovník na roli školské […]
      […] avid, quiet worker in the domain of education […]
Declension
Derived terms
Related terms
Synonyms

Anagrams

References

  1. "role1" in Jiří Rejzek, Český etymologický slovník, Leda, 2015, ISBN 978-80-7335-393-3, page 598.
  2. "role2" in Jiří Rejzek, Český etymologický slovník, Leda, 2015, ISBN 978-80-7335-393-3, page 598.

Old French

Noun

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

  1. roll; scroll (rolled up document)

Descendants

  • English: roll (borrowed)
  • French: rôle
    • English: role (borrowed)

References

  • (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (role, supplement)

Portuguese

Verb

role

  1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of rolar
  2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of rolar
  3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of rolar
  4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of rolar

Spanish

Verb

role

  1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of rolar.
  2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of rolar.
  3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of rolar.
  4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of rolar.