Other forms: rotes
Rote is learning by repeating until it sticks, without understanding. Learn by rote, rote memorisation, rote learning.
It is usually a criticism now, though it has real uses — times tables and alphabets are better held by rote than reasoned out each time. The word appears almost only in the phrase by rote, and its origin is genuinely unknown.
1nounroteLearning by repetition without understanding.
“We learned the dates of every king by rote and forgot them after the exam.”
rote is a way of learning.
Middle English rote means custom or habit, in the phrase bi rote. Its further origin is unknown.
Middle English
rote — custom, habit, wont, condition, state
English, today
rote
Built from
From Middle English rote (“custom, habit, wont, condition, state”), further origin unknown. Found in the Middle English phrase bi rote (“by heart, according to form, expertly”), c. 1300. Some have proposed a relationship either with Old French rote/rute (“route”), or Latin rota (“wheel”) (see rotary), but the OED calls both suggestions groundless. Another explanation might be the metaphorical comparison between anything repetitive and playing the rote.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA