rote

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A medieval stringed instrument variably identified with a lyre, lute, or harp.
• noun A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension.
• noun Mechanical routine.
• noun The sound of surf breaking on the shore.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To learn by rote or by heart.
• To repeat from memory.
• To rotate; change by rotation.
• noun A fixed or unchanging round, as in learning or reciting something; mechanical routine in learning, or in the repetition of that which has been learned; exact memorizing, or reproduction from memory, as of words or sounds, with or without attention to their significance: chiefly in the phrase by rote.
• noun A part mechanically committed to memory.
• noun A row or rank.
• noun A musical instrument with strings, and played either by a bow, like a crowd or fiddle, or by a wheel, like a hurdy-gurdy. See crowd. Also called rota.
• An obsolete dialectal form of rout.
• noun The sound of surf, as before a storm.
• noun A Middle English form of root.
• A Middle English form of root.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun obsolete A root.
• noun The noise produced by the surf of the sea dashing upon the shore. See rut.
• noun (Mus.) A kind of guitar, the notes of which were produced by a small wheel or wheel-like arrangement; an instrument similar to the hurdy-gurdy.
• noun A frequent repetition of forms of speech without attention to the meaning; mere repetition.
• transitive verb obsolete To learn or repeat by rote.
• intransitive verb obsolete To go out by rotation or succession; to rotate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The process of learning or committing something to memory through mechanical repetition, usually by hearing and repeating aloud, often without full attention to comprehension or thought for the meaning.
• noun Mechanical routine; a fixed, habitual, repetitive, or mechanical course of procedure.
• adjective By repetition or practice.
• verb obsolete To go out by rotation or succession; to rotate.
• noun rare The roar of the surf; the sound of waves breaking on the shore.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun memorization by repetition