Word: root Part of Speech: noun Etymology: PIE word *wréh₂ds From Middle English rote, root, roote (“the underground part of a plant”), from late Old English rōt, from Old Norse rót (“root”), from Proto-Germanic *wrōts (“root”), from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (“root”); Doublet of wort, radish, and radix. Cognate with Scots ruit, rute (“root”), Danish rod (“root”), Faroese and Icelandic rót (“root”), Norwegian and Swedish rot (“root”). Pronunciation: /ɹuːt/, /ɹʉwt/, /ɹut/, /ɹʉːt/, /ɹʊt/ 1. The part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors and supports the plant body, absorbs and stores water and nutrients, and in some plants is able to perform vegetative reproduction. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: This tree's roots can go as deep as twenty metres underground. Example: A Greek historian Phylarchus describes a white root indigenous to India that caused eunuchism when a person bathed in water in which the root was steeped. 2. A root vegetable. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: [...] two fields which should have been sown with roots in the early summer were not sown because the ploughing had not been completed early enough. 3. The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Root damage is a common problem of overbrushing. 4. The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The root is the only part of the hair that is alive. 5. The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: He dyed his hair black last month, so the grey roots can be seen. 6. The primary source; origin. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: The love of money is the root of all evil. Example: They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people. 7. The section of a wing immediately adjacent to the fuselage. Labels: countable, uncountable 8. The bottom of the thread of a threaded object. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The root diameter is the minor diameter of an external thread and the major diameter of an internal one. 9. Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The cube root of 27 is 3. 10. A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, "the root of" is often abbreviated to "root"). Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Multiply by root 2. Example: 1899, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (transl.), The New Life (La Vita Nuova) of Dante Alighieri, Siddall edition, page 122. The number three is the root of the number nine; […] being multiplied merely by itself, it produceth nine, as we manifestly perceive that three times three are nine. 11. A zero (of an equation). Labels: countable, uncountable 12. The single node of a tree that has no parent. Labels: countable, uncountable 13. The primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Inflectional stems often derive from roots. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: In ſo moche that if any verbe be of the thyꝛde coniugation / I ſet out all his rotes and tenſes[…] Example: A considerable number of derived nominals, especially thematic nouns, also exhibited o-grade roots. 14. A word from which another word or words are derived. Labels: countable, uncountable 15. The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed. Labels: countable, uncountable 16. The lowest place, position, or part. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: deep to the roots of hell Example: the roots of the mountains 17. In UNIX terminology, the first user account with complete access to the operating system and its configuration, found at the root of the directory structure; the person who manages accounts on a UNIX system. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I have to log in as root before I do that. 18. The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I installed the files in the root directory. 19. A penis, especially the base of a penis. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable