root

Definitions

• 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.
• A root vegetable.
• The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.
• The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.
• The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.
• (figurative) The primary source; origin.
• (arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.
• (arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, “the root of” is often abbreviated to “root”).
• (analysis) A zero (of an equation).
• (graph theory) The single node of a tree that has no parent.
• (linguistic morphology) 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.
• (philology) A word from which another word or words are derived.
• (music) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.
• The lowest place, position, or part.
• (computing) 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.
• (computing) The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories.
• (slang) A penis, especially the base of a penis.