Meanings
role1
plural roles · alternative dated rôle
- The expected behaviour of an individual in a society.
The role of women has changed significantly in the last century.
- The function or position of something.
What role does the wax in your earhole fulfill?
2 more examples
Local volunteers played an important role in cleaning the beach after the oil spill.
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.
2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3 - Designation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, or privileges
The project manager role is responsible for ensuring that everyone on the team knows and executes his or her assigned tasks.
2 more examples
As students all over the United States knuckle down to learning, the rumble of war drums once more proclaims Mars high man in Europe. Discarding morbid curiosity, every student should consider it vitally necessary to get a general picture of the causes, movements, and possible effects of World War II. The average U. S. citizen's knowledge of World War II will probably decide his role in it.
1939 November 10, “Following The War”, in The Chart, volume I, number 1, Joplin, Missouri: Joplin Junior College, page 4, column 1I'm setting up a few roles that all have the same permissions but different cosmetics. When I go to add a new role, the permissions are all turned off by default. Is there a way to have them default to the @everyone permissions?
2024 April 24, leatherett3, “Do I have to do the permissions from scratch with every role?”, in Reddit, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2024, r/discordappSynonyms: capacity
- grammarThe function of a word in a phrase.
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.
1984, David M. Perlmutter, Carol G. Rosen, Studies in relational grammar: Volume 2 - object-oriented programmingIn the Raku programming language, a code element akin to an interface, used for composition of classes without adding to their inheritance chain.
role2
Synonyms & antonyms
nounDesignation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, or privileges
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group
nounan actor's portrayal of someone in a play
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Medieval Latinrotulus
- Old Frenchrole
- Middle Frenchrolle
- Frenchrôle
- Englishrole
From French rôle, from Middle French rolle, from Old French role, from Medieval Latin rotulus. Doublet of roll and rotulus.
More words from French, Middle French, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic دَوْر
- دَوْر (dawr)character or part
Bengali ভূমিকা
- ভূমিকা (bhumika)character or part
Bulgarian ро́ля
- ро́ля (rólja)character or part
Catalan paper, rol
- papercharacter or part
- rolthe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- paperthe function or position of something
- funció(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
Chinese Cantonese 角色, 角
- 角色 (gok³ sik¹)character or part
- 角character or part
Chinese Mandarin 角色, 角
- 角色 (juésè)character or part
- 角 (jué)character or part
- 任務 /任务 (rènwu)the function or position of something
Czech role
- rolecharacter or part
Danish rolle
- rollecharacter or part
Dutch rol
- rolcharacter or part
Estonian roll
- rollcharacter or part
Finnish rooli, osa
- roolicharacter or part
- osacharacter or part
- asemathe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- roolithe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- virkathe function or position of something
- roolithe function or position of something
- osathe function or position of something
French rôle, rôle
- rôlecharacter or part
- rôlethe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- rôlethe function or position of something
- fonction(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
German Rolle, Rolle
- Rollecharacter or part
- Rollethe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- Rollethe function or position of something
- Aufgabethe function or position of something
- Funktionthe function or position of something
Greek ρόλος, ρόλος
- ρόλος (rólos)character or part
- ρόλος (rólos)the expected behavior of an individual in a society
- ρόλος (rólos)the function or position of something
- ρόλος (rólos)(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
Hebrew תַּפְקִיד
- תַּפְקִיד (tafkíd)character or part
Hindi भूमिका, भूमिका
- भूमिका (bhūmikā)character or part
- भूमिका (bhūmikā)the expected behavior of an individual in a society
- भूमिका (bhūmikā)the function or position of something
Hungarian szerep
- szerepcharacter or part
Icelandic hlutverk
- hlutverkcharacter or part
Indonesian peranan, peranan
- peranancharacter or part
- perananthe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- peranthe function or position of something
- tugasthe function or position of something
Irish ról, ról
- rólcharacter or part
- rólthe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- rólthe function or position of something
Italian ruolo, ruolo
- ruolocharacter or part
- ruolothe function or position of something
Japanese 役, 役柄
- 役 (yaku)character or part
- 役柄 (yakugara)character or part
- 役割 (yakuwari)the expected behavior of an individual in a society
- 役割 (yakuwari)the function or position of something
Korean 역할, 역
- 역할 (yeokhal)character or part
- 역 (yeok)character or part
- 역 (yeok)the function or position of something
- 직무 (jingmu)the function or position of something
Latvian loma
- lomacharacter or part
Lithuanian rolė, vaidmuo
- rolėcharacter or part
- vaidmuocharacter or part
Malay peranan
- peranancharacter or part
Norwegian Bokmål rolle, rolle
- rollecharacter or part
- rollethe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- rollethe function or position of something
Polish rola, rola
- rolacharacter or part
- rolathe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- rolathe function or position of something
- funkcjathe function or position of something
- pozycjathe function or position of something
- funkcja(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
- rola(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
Portuguese papel, função
- papelcharacter or part
- funçãothe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- papelthe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- funçãothe function or position of something
- papelthe function or position of something
- função(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
- papel(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
Romanian rol
- rolcharacter or part
Russian роль, роль
- роль (rolʹ)character or part
- роль (rolʹ)the expected behavior of an individual in a society
- до́лжность (dólžnostʹ)the function or position of something
Slovak rola
- rolacharacter or part
Spanish papel, rol
- papelcharacter or part
- rolthe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- papelthe function or position of something
Swedish roll, roll
- rollcharacter or part
- rollthe expected behavior of an individual in a society
- rollthe function or position of something
- funktion(grammar) the function of a word in a phrase
Tamil பங்கு
- பங்கு (paṅku)character or part
Thai บทบาท, บทบาท
- บทบาท (bòt-bàat)character or part
- บทบาท (bòt-bàat)the expected behavior of an individual in a society
Turkish rol, işlev
- rolcharacter or part
- işlevthe function or position of something
- görevthe function or position of something
- rolthe function or position of something
Ukrainian роль
- роль (rolʹ)character or part
Urdu کِرْدار
- کِرْدار (kirdār)character or part
Vietnamese vai, vai trò
- vaicharacter or part
- vai tròcharacter or part
Yiddish ראָלע, ראָלע
- ראָלע (role)character or part
- ראָלע (role)the expected behavior of an individual in a society
- ראָלע (role)the function or position of something
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with role
Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
role. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/role
“role.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/role. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “role,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/role.
Source: role on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.