rotund

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /roʊˈtʌnd/ UK /rəʊˈtʌnd/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
rounded and plump; full and sonorous in tone

The rotund innkeeper greeted us with a hearty laugh.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · rounded and plump; full and... round plump portly corpulent stout sonorous resonant

Opposites

thin slim slender gaunt

Word family

Derived forms rotundityrotundlyrotundness

Related forms rotundaround rota

Etymology

From Latin rotundus ('round, circular'), from rota ('wheel'), from Proto-Indo-European *Hroth₂o- ('wheel').

rotundus Latin rota Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# rotund

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /roʊˈtʌnd/
**IPA (UK):** /rəʊˈtʌnd/

## Meanings
1. rounded and plump; full and sonorous in tone

## Examples
- The rotund innkeeper greeted us with a hearty laugh.

## Synonyms
- round
- plump
- portly
- corpulent
- stout
- sonorous
- resonant

## Antonyms
- thin
- slim
- slender
- gaunt

## Derived Forms
- rotundity
- rotundly
- rotundness

## Related Forms
- rotunda
- round
- rota

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: rotundus
- Root: rota

## Etymology
From Latin rotundus ('round, circular'), from rota ('wheel'), from Proto-Indo-European *Hroth₂o- ('wheel').

## AI Etymology
Rotund comes from Latin rotundus ('round, circular'), from rota ('wheel'), from Proto-Indo-European *Hroth₂o- ('wheel'). The historical chain includes Latin rotundus and Latin rota. Older glosses in the chain include "round, circular" and "wheel", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, rotund is best read as borrowing, yielding an English adjective shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as an adjective, with the sense "rounded and plump; full and sonorous in tone". English derivatives include rotundity, rotundly, and rotundness; related forms include rotunda, round, and rota. The result is an English adjective whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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