roots

«roots» in Mova's school dictionary: the parts of a plant that grow under the ground; they… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (roots, plural of root; root — a root); verb (roots, from root)

meaning for a pupil

1) Roots are the parts of a plant that grow under the ground; they hold the plant in place and take in water and minerals. tree →

2) The roots of a tooth or hair are the parts that hold it in the body. tree →

3) Your roots are the place and family you come from. tree →

4) The roots of a problem are where it starts. tree →

5) In maths, a root of a number, like the square root, is a number that multiplies by itself to give that number. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science roots anchor plants and take up water; carrots and potatoes are roots or underground parts we eat; tree roots can crack pavements. In everyday life, people say they have Irish or Greek roots (family history). In English lessons, a root word is the main part of a word before prefixes and suffixes are added (happy is the root of unhappiness). In maths the square root of 9 is 3 because 3 × 3 = 9.

examples

• The roots take in water from the soil. tree →
• Tree roots lifted up the pavement. tree →
• Carrots are roots that we eat. tree →
• My family has roots in Scotland. tree →
• «Kind» is the root word of «kindness». tree →
• The square root of 16 is 4. tree →
• The dentist said the tooth's root was healthy. tree →
• We need to find the roots of the problem. tree →
• Meet here beneath this ash-tree's roots. tree →

note

Singular «root», plural «roots». «Take root» = start to grow. Homophone: «route» (a way to travel) is often said «root» in the UK. In maths the square root sign is √; √25 = 5. Not all things underground are roots: a potato is a tuber (a swollen stem).

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 «roots» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.