Definitions for ROOT
rut, rʊtROOT

Princeton's WordNet(4.25 / 8 votes)Rate this definition:

1. rootnoun

   (botany) the usually underground organ that lacks buds or leaves or nodes; absorbs water and mineral salts; usually it anchors the plant to the ground

2. beginning, origin, root, rootage, sourcenoun

   the place where something begins, where it springs into being

   "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance"; "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root"

3. root, root word, base, stem, theme, radicalnoun

   (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed

   "thematic vowels are part of the stem"

4. rootnoun

   a number that, when multiplied by itself some number of times, equals a given number

5. solution, rootnoun

   the set of values that give a true statement when substituted into an equation

6. ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, antecedent, rootnoun

   someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

7. etymon, rootnoun

   a simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes

8. root, tooth rootverb

   the part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and serves as support

9. rootverb

   take root and begin to grow

   "this plant roots quickly"

10. rootverb

    come into existence, originate

    "The problem roots in her depression"

11. rootverb

    plant by the roots

12. rout, root, rootleverb

    dig with the snout

    "the pig was rooting for truffles"

13. settle, root, take root, steady down, settle downverb

    become settled or established and stable in one's residence or life style

    "He finally settled down"

14. rootverb

    cause to take roots

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Rootverb

   to turn up the earth with the snout, as swine

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

2. Rootverb

   hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or groveling servility; to fawn servilely

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

3. Rootverb

   to turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine roots the earth

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

4. Rootnoun

   the underground portion of a plant, whether a true root or a tuber, a bulb or rootstock, as in the potato, the onion, or the sweet flag

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

5. Rootnoun

   the descending, and commonly branching, axis of a plant, increasing in length by growth at its extremity only, not divided into joints, leafless and without buds, and having for its offices to fix the plant in the earth, to supply it with moisture and soluble matters, and sometimes to serve as a reservoir of nutriment for future growth. A true root, however, may never reach the ground, but may be attached to a wall, etc., as in the ivy, or may hang loosely in the air, as in some epiphytic orchids

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

6. Rootnoun

   an edible or esculent root, especially of such plants as produce a single root, as the beet, carrot, etc.; as, the root crop

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

7. Rootnoun

   that which resembles a root in position or function, esp. as a source of nourishment or support; that from which anything proceeds as if by growth or development; as, the root of a tooth, a nail, a cancer, and the like

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

8. Rootnoun

   an ancestor or progenitor; and hence, an early race; a stem

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

9. Rootnoun

   a primitive form of speech; one of the earliest terms employed in language; a word from which other words are formed; a radix, or radical

   Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

10. Rootnoun

    the cause or occasion by which anything is brought about; the source

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

11. Rootnoun

    that factor of a quantity which when multiplied into itself will produce that quantity; thus, 3 is a root of 9, because 3 multiplied into itself produces 9; 3 is the cube root of 27

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

12. Rootnoun

    the fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

13. Rootnoun

    the lowest place, position, or part

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

14. Rootnoun

    the time which to reckon in making calculations

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

15. Rootverb

    to fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

16. Rootverb

    to be firmly fixed; to be established

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

17. Rootverb

    to plant and fix deeply in the earth, or as in the earth; to implant firmly; hence, to make deep or radical; to establish; -- used chiefly in the participle; as, rooted trees or forests; rooted dislike

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

18. Rootverb

    to tear up by the root; to eradicate; to extirpate; -- with up, out, or away

    Etymology: [Icel. rt (for vrt); akin to E. wort, and perhaps to root to turn up the earth. See Wort.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Root

   The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Content words in nearly all languages contain, and may consist only of root morphemes. However, sometimes the term "root" is also used to describe the word minus its inflectional endings, but with its lexical endings in place. For example, chatters has the inflectional root or lemma chatter, but the lexical root chat. Inflectional roots are often called stems, and a root in the stricter sense may be thought of as a monomorphemic stem. The traditional definition allows roots to be either free morphemes or bound morphemes. Root morphemes are essential for affixation and compounds. However, in polysynthetic languages with very high levels of inflectional morphology, the term "root" is generally synonymous with "free morpheme". Many such languages have a very restricted number of morphemes that can stand alone as a word: Yup'ik, for instance, has no more than two thousand. The root of a word is a unit of meaning and, as such, it is an abstraction, though it can usually be represented in writing as a word would be. For example, it can be said that the root of the English verb form running is run, or the root of the Spanish superlative adjective amplísimo is ampl-, since those words are clearly derived from the root forms by simple suffixes that do not alter the roots in any way. In particular, English has very little inflection, and hence a tendency to have words that are identical to their roots. But more complicated inflection, as well as other processes, can obscure the root; for example, the root of mice is mouse, and the root of interrupt is, arguably, rupt, which is not a word in English and only appears in derivational forms. The root rupt is written as if it were a word, but it's not.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Root

   rōōt, n. the part of a plant which is fixed in the earth, and which draws up sap from the soil: an edible root: anything like a root, a growing plant together with its root: the bottom: a word from which others are derived: the cause, occasion, or basis of anything: the source: the lowest place: the first ancestor, or progenitor: (math.) the factor of a quantity which multiplied by itself produces that quantity: any value of the unknown quantity in an equation which will render both sides of it identical.—v.i. to fix the root: to be firmly established: to tear up: to eradicate: to exterminate.—v.t. to plant in the earth: to implant deeply.—ns. Root′age, the act of striking roots; Root′-beer, a drink made from roots of dandelion, sassafras, &c.; Root′-bōr′er, an insect which bores the roots of plants.—adj. Root′-bound (Milt.), fixed in the earth by, or as by, the root.—ns. Root′-cap, a cap-like layer of cells at the tip of roots; Root′-crop, a crop of esculent roots, esp. of single-rooted plants, as turnips, &c.; Root′-dig′ger, a form of tongs for raising carrots, &c.; Root′-eat′er, any animal feeding habitually on roots.—adj. Root′ed, firmly planted: fixed by the roots: deep-seated, as a rooted dislike.—adv. Root′edly.—ns. Root′edness; Root′er.—adj. Root′-fast, firmly rooted.—ns. Root′-fī′bril, one of the fine divisions of a root; Root′-form, a form assumed by an insect when feeding on roots; Root′-graft′ing, the process of grafting scions on a part of the root of some appropriate stock; Root′-hair, a delicate filament developed from a single cell.—adj. Root′-head′ed, fixed as if rooted by the head.—ns. Root′-house, a rustic-house: a storehouse for potatoes, &c.; Root′-knot, an abnormal knot of a root.—adj. Root′less, destitute of roots.—ns. Root′let, a little root: a radicle; Root′-louse, one of the plant-lice; Root′-par′asite, a plant which grows upon, and derives its nourishment from, the root of another plant; Root′-pres′sure, an upward flow of sap, 'bleeding;' Root′-pulp′er, a mill for grinding roots; Root′-sheath, the sheath of the root of a hair or feather; Root′-stock (bot.), a prostrate rooting stem, either fleshy or woody, which yearly produces young branches or plants: origin.—adj. Root′y, abounding in roots: rank.—Root and branch, completely; Root of bitterness, a dangerous error drawing away to apostasy; Root of the matter, that which is essential.—Strike, or Take, root, to root, to become fixed. [Scand.; Ice. rót; Dan. rod; Goth. waurts, A.S. wyrt.]

2. Root

   rōōt, v.t. to turn up with the snout.—v.i. to turn up the earth with the snout.—n. Root′er.—v.t. Root′le. [A.S. wrótan—wrót, a snout.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. root

   1. [Unix] The superuser account (with user name ‘root’) that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a Unix system. The term avatar is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory structure; historically the home directory of the root user, but probably named after the root of an (inverted) tree. 3. By extension, the privileged system-maintenance login on any OS. See root mode, go root, see also wheel.

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. root

   A element of a cultivar, plant, shrub, bush, hedge, vine or tree.

   The roots are a vital part of the tree, shrubs, vine, hedges etc.

   Submitted by MaryC on February 27, 2020  

Suggested Resources(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. root

   The root symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the root symbol and its characteristic.

2. root

   Song lyrics by root -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by root on the Lyrics.com website.

3. ROOT

   What does ROOT stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the ROOT acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Become
   • Botany
   • Dig
   • Form
   • Grow
   • Linguistics
   • Number
   • Plant
   • Plant Organ
   • Relative
   • Set
   • Stabilize

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ROOT' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4756

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ROOT' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2420

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ROOT' in Nouns Frequency: #1006

4. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ROOT' in Verbs Frequency: #1107

Anagrams for ROOT »

1. Troo

How to pronounce ROOT?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say ROOT in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of ROOT in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of ROOT in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of ROOT in a Sentence

1. Bubba Watson:

   You hear a lot of 'Go Dawgs!' You hear a lot of barking, when you get to see that many people from a school, it is like a fraternity. You can root for those people. Obviously, I want to beat them all, but you root for them and cheer them on.

2. John Biever:

   This is what fans do in March Madness. We root for the underdog. We root for the improbable. That’s why we love this tournament so much, this is the ultimate storyline. The tough kid from Queens who got hurt in the NCAA tournament and couldn't play — couldn't finish out his career — now gets the chance to coach a tough, gritty team that’s become the darling of the country, and so we literally have – I wouldn’t say David vs. Goliath — but Shaheen vs. Goliath this weekend.

3. Mark Warner:

   For years, we saw former President Donald Trump – along with a number of foreign leaders – successfully utilize Facebook and other large social media platforms to sow misinformation, bully opponents, and spread anti-democratic vitriol, while this is a welcome step by Facebook, the reality is that bad actors still have the ability to exploit and weaponize the platform. Policymakers ultimately must address the root of these issues, which includes pushing for oversight and effective moderation mechanisms to hold platforms accountable for a business model that spreads real-world harm.

4. Joni Ernst:

   The root cause is not that we have the Second Amendment, it is that we’re not adequately addressing mental illness across the United States. We need to focus on that, and we need to focus on substance abuse.

5. Soe Htay:

   The way I see it, their sorrow will only be healed after the revolution... my only thought is to root out the dictatorship, for now I have to bury my bitterness and hatred in the revolution.

Popularity rank by frequency of use