roulette
English · Français · Deutsch · Italiano · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
roulette
- /ɹuːˈlɛt/
Rhymes with -ɛt
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French roulette (“roulette, little wheel”). The sense "situation with a random chance of incurring serious harm" may be abstracted from Russian roulette.
noun roulettes
-
A game of chance in which a small ball is made to move round rapidly on a circle divided off into numbered (usually red and black) spaces. When the ball stops, it indicates the result of a variety of wagers permitted by the game.
Similar: roly-poly
- An instance of risk-taking, especially when the downside exceeds the upside (contrary to the game of roulette where only the wager is lost). Doctors and health officials said that the WRC-TV documentary, "DPT: Vaccine Roulette," emphasized the risks of the vaccine while ignoring the dangers of the disease, which has been almost wiped out in this country.
- A small toothed wheel used by engravers to roll over a plate in order to produce rows of dots.
- A similar wheel used to roughen the surface of a plate, as in making alterations in a mezzotint.
- The locus of a point on a plane curve that rolls without slipping along another fixed plane curve.
- Any of the small incisions on a sheet of stamps, used as an alternative to perforations.
- A cylindrical curler for the hair.
verb roulettes · rouletting · rouletted
- To separate or decorate by incisions made with a small toothed wheel. to roulette a sheet of postage stamps
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: line roulette, toothed wheel, wheel, rondo, coup, raffle, rollerball, lotto, round robin, keno, birdcage, chuck-a-luck, race, lottery, rover, bingo
Translations
Talk about this word "roulette." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/roulette. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. roulette. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/roulette "roulette." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/roulette.Cite this
@misc{roulette_2026,
title = {roulette},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/roulette},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
