root and branch

The usually underground portion of a plant that lacks buds, leaves, or nodes and serves as support, draws minerals and water from the surrounding soil, and sometimes stores food.

Any of various other underground plant parts, especially an underground stem such as a rhizome, corm, or tuber.

1. The embedded part of an organ or structure such as a hair, tooth, or nerve, that serves as a base or support.

2. A base or support: We snipped the wires at the roots.

3. The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society. Often used in the plural: Our roots in this town go back a long way.

4. roots The state of having or establishing an indigenous relationship with or a personal affinity for a particular culture, society, or environment: music with unmistakable African roots.

5. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

6. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

7. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

8. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

9. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

10. The note from which a chord is built.

11. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

An essential part or element; the basic core: I finally got to the root of the problem.

A primary source; an origin. See Synonyms at origin.

A progenitor or ancestor from which a person or family is descended.

1. The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society. Often used in the plural: Our roots in this town go back a long way.

2. roots The state of having or establishing an indigenous relationship with or a personal affinity for a particular culture, society, or environment: music with unmistakable African roots.

3. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

4. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

5. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

6. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

7. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

8. The note from which a chord is built.

9. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

Linguistics

1. The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.

2. Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.

3. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

4. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

5. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

6. The note from which a chord is built.

7. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

Mathematics

1. A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root.

2. A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.

3. A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

4. The note from which a chord is built.

5. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

Music

1. The note from which a chord is built.

2. Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.

To grow roots or a root.

To become firmly established, settled, or entrenched.

To come into existence; originate.

To cause to put out roots and grow.

To implant by or as if by the roots.

To furnish a primary source or origin to.

To remove by or as if by the roots. Often used with up or out: "declared that waste and fraud will be vigorously rooted out of Government" (New York Times).

A plant part that usually grows underground, secures the plant in place, absorbs minerals and water, and stores food manufactured by leaves and other plant parts. Roots grow in a root system. Eudicots and magnoliids have a central, longer, and larger taproot with many narrower lateral roots branching off, while monocots have a mass of threadlike fibrous roots, which are roughly the same length and remain close to the surface of the soil. In vascular plants, roots usually consist of a central cylinder of vascular tissue, surrounded by the pericycle and endodermis, then a thick layer of cortex, and finally an outer epidermis or (in woody plants) periderm. Only finer roots (known as feeder roots) actively take up water and minerals, generally in the uppermost meter of soil. These roots absorb minerals primarily through small epidermal structures known as root hairs. In certain plants, adventitious roots grow out from the stem above ground as aerial roots or prop roots, bending down into the soil, to facilitate the exchange of gases or increase support. Certain plants (such as the carrot and beet) have fleshy storage roots with abundant parenchyma in their vascular tissues. See also fibrous root, taproot.

Any of various other plant parts that grow underground, especially an underground stem such as a corm, rhizome, or tuber.

The part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and not covered by enamel.

Mathematics

1. A number that, when multiplied by itself a given number of times, produces a specified number. For example, since 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16, 2 is a fourth root of 16.

2. A solution to an equation. For example, a root of the equation x² - 4 = 0 is 2, since 2² - 4 = 0.