root
part of speech
noun (a root, roots); verb (root, roots, rooted, rooting)
meaning for a pupil
1) The part of a plant that grows under the ground, holding it in place and taking in water and minerals. tree →
2) The part of a tooth or hair under the surface that holds it in. tree →
3) The cause or origin of something: the root of the problem. tree →
4) Roots are where a person's family comes from. tree →
5) In maths, a root of a number, like the square root: the square root of 9 is 3. tree →
6) In language, a root word is the main part a longer word is built from. tree →
7) As a verb, to root for a team means to cheer for it; to root around means to search. tree →
8) Rooted means fixed firmly in one place, as if growing there. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, roots anchor plants, absorb water and minerals,, and some store food, like carrots and beetroot (potatoes are swollen stems, not roots). In maths, the square root of a number is the number that times itself gives it: √16 = 4 because 4 × 4 = 16. In English, the root word "happy" builds "unhappy" and "happiness". In everyday life, "roots" means family background. Phrases: "take root", "square root", "root word", "root for", "the root of", "grass roots".
examples
- Roots take in water from the soil. tree →
- A carrot is a root we can eat. tree →
- The square root of 25 is 5. tree →
- "Play" is the root word of "playful". tree →
- We root for our school team every match. tree →
- The dog rooted around in the bin. tree →
- The tree's roots cracked the pavement. tree →
- Money was the root of the argument. tree →
- It seemed to be rooted into the ground. tree →
note
Countable: a root, roots. Do not confuse with "route" (a way to go), which some people pronounce the same. In maths, square root (√) is the opposite of squaring: 7² = 49, so √49 = 7. "Root for" (cheer) is mainly American; in Australia and New Zealand "root" is rude slang, so "barrack for" is used to mean "cheer for".
In the corpora
- Wetlands soak up flood water like giant sponges and let it out slowly, and reed roots trap mud and clean the water.
- Soil gives plants water, grip for their roots and minerals such as nitrogen; without minerals plants grow small and yellow.
- Plants grow mainly at the tips of their shoots and roots, and some bamboos can grow nearly a metre in a day.
- Stems have thin tubes that carry water up from the roots, and other tubes that carry sugar round the plant.
- Buttress roots spread out like walls around many rainforest trees and hold the tall tree up in thin soil.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «root» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.