rota

plural rotas

1. IrelandUKA schedule that allocates some task, responsibility or (rarely) privilege between a set of people according to a (possibly periodic) calendar.

   on a rota basis

   1 more example

   [The manager] instituted a rota for having the players attend supporters’ club meetings throughout the season, telling them it was part of the job of being a footballer.

   2014 July 25, Paul Rees, “‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … People spat at us’”, in The Guardian

plural rotas · alternative rocta · alternative rotta

1. entertainmentA kind of zither used in the Middle Ages in church music.

   Along the creek bed he came, plucking a rota, a zither of five strings with bone-yoke facings and a beaverskin carrying-bag thrown over his shoulder.

   2011, A. A. Attanasio, The Wolf and the Crown (The Perilous Order of Camelot)

plural Rotas

1. countableuncountableCatholicismA branch of the papal Curia which serves as an appellate court in ecclesiastical cases, including cases of marriage nullity.

   The Rota consists of twelve Doctors, chosen out of the four Nations of Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.

   1728, Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia, s.v. "Rota"

2. UKcountablehistoricalobsoleteuncountableA club established by James Harrington in 1659 to advocate term limits and rotation of government offices; other similar clubs of the era.
3. countableA surname from Italian.
4. countableuncountableA town in Andalusia, Spain.

1. An island of the Northern Mariana Islands.