'Role' or 'roll'?
Knowing the difference
What to KnowRoll and role are distinct words that are sometimes confused for each other. Roll has many meanings based on something that is round or cylindrical in shape or moves by revolving or turning, and is used in the idiom on a roll, meaning “experiencing a string of successes.” Role can mean “a character played by an actor,” as in “a starring role,” or “a function or position in an activity or situation.”
Usage advice baked perfectly
When you are in the midst of a series of successes is this described as being on a roll or should it be on a role? Does one go to a neighborhood delicatessen and order a buttered roll or a role similarly treated? Does an actor perform the role of a lifetime, or is it a starring roll? In all these cases it is the former, rather than the latter, that is called for.
Roll and role both function as nouns, and roll is also found as a verb (role has a specialized use as a verb in computer technology, but is not often encountered by most people). Both words can be traced to the Old French rolle (meaning "scroll"), which itself can be traced to the Latin word for "wheel" (rota).
Usage of Role
Of the two words role is by far the simpler one, with only a few meanings. We offer such definitions as “a character assigned or assumed,” “a socially expected behavior pattern usually determined by an individual's status in a particular society,” “a part played by an actor or singer,” and “a function or part performed especially in a particular operation or process.”
Usage of Roll
Roll, on the other hand, has an extremely wide range of possible meanings, ranging from “an official list” to “to rob (a drunk, sleeping, or unconscious person) usually by going through the pockets.” Most of the senses of roll have some connection to circularity; many of the meanings that relate to documents come from the word’s initial meaning in English (“a written document that may be rolled up”), and objects that are rolls tend to in circular shapes, or capable of being so formed. An exception to this circular quality is when referring to sound, such as a roll of thunder or a roll played on a snare drum.
When using each of these words in idioms remember that you ‘roll the bones’ (play a dice game known as craps), ‘roll the dice’ (to assume a risk by taking action), and ‘roll with the punches’ (to adjust to things as they happen). If people change positions they typically occupy this is role reversal, and the person who has the most prominent position in an endeavor is playing the starring role.
