Root vs. Route — What's the Difference?

In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They most often lie below the surface of the soil, but roots can also be aerial or aerating, that is, growing up above the ground or especially above water.

A road, course, or way for travel from one place to another

The part of a plant which attaches it to the ground or to a support, typically underground, conveying water and nourishment to the rest of the plant via numerous branches and fibres

A highway

The basic cause, source, or origin of something

A fixed course or territory assigned to a salesperson or delivery person.

A number or quantity that when multiplied by itself, typically a specified number of times, gives a specified number or quantity.

A means of reaching a goal

A user account with full and unrestricted access to a system

(Football) A pass pattern.

An act of sexual intercourse.

To send or forward by a specific route.

An act of rooting

A course or way which is traveled or passed.

Cause (a plant or cutting) to grow roots

A regular itinerary of stops, or the path followed between these stops, such as for delivery or passenger transportation.

Establish deeply and firmly

A road or path; often specifically a highway.

Cause (someone) to stand immobile through fear or amazement

(figuratively) One of multiple methods or approaches to doing something.

Gain access to the root account of (a smartphone or computer)

(historical) One of the major provinces of imperial China from the Later Jin to the Song, corresponding to the Tang and early Yuan circuits.

Have sexual intercourse with.

(computing) A specific entry in a router that tells the router how to transmit the data it receives.

(of an animal) turn up the ground with its snout in search of food

(horse racing) A race longer than one mile.

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.

(transitive) To direct or divert along a particular course.

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

(Internet) to connect two local area networks, thereby forming an internet.

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

To send (information) through a router.

The bottom or supporting part of something

The course or way which is traveled or passed, or is to be passed; a passing; a course; a road or path; a march.

The essential part or element; the basic core

An established line of travel or access

A primary source; an origin.

An open way (generally public) for travel or transportation

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

Send documents or materials to appropriate destinations

Often roots The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society

Send via a specific route

Roots The state of having or establishing an indigenous relationship with or a personal affinity for a particular culture, society, or environment

Divert in a specified direction;

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.

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

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.

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

A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.

The note from which a chord is built.

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

To grow roots or a root

To become firmly established or settled

To plant and fix the roots of (a plant) in soil or the ground.

To establish or settle firmly

To be the source or origin of

To dig or pull out by the roots. Often used with up or out

To remove or get rid of. Often used with out

To turn up by digging with the snout or nose

To cause to appear or be known. Used with out

To turn over the earth with the snout or nose.

To search or rummage for something

To give audible encouragement or applause to a contestant or team; cheer.

To give moral support to someone; hope for a favorable outcome for someone

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.

(aviation) The section of a wing immediately adjacent to the fuselage.

(engineering) The bottom of the thread of a threaded object.

(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).

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.

An act of sexual intercourse.

A sexual partner.

To grow roots; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.

To prepare, oversee, or otherwise cause the rooting of cuttings.

To be firmly fixed; to be established.

To get root or privileged access on a computer system or mobile phone, often through bypassing some security mechanism.

(ambitransitive) To turn up or dig with the snout.

(by extension) To seek favour or advancement by low arts or grovelling servility; to fawn.

(intransitive) To rummage; to search as if by digging in soil.

(intransitive) Of a baby: to turn the head and open the mouth in search of food.

(transitive) To root out; to abolish.

To sexually penetrate.

To cheer (on); to show support (for) and hope for the success of. See root for.

To turn up the earth with the snout, as swine.

Hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or groveling servility; to fawn servilely.

To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine roots the earth.

To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.

To be firmly fixed; to be established.

To shout for, or otherwise noisly applaud or encourage, a contestant, as in sports; hence, to wish earnestly for the success of some one or the happening of some event, with the superstitious notion that this action may have efficacy; - usually with for; as, the crowd rooted for the home team.

To plant and fix deeply in the earth, or as in the earth; to implant firmly; hence, to make deep or radical; to establish; - used chiefly in the participle; as, rooted trees or forests; rooted dislike.

To tear up by the root; to eradicate; to extirpate; - with up, out, or away.

The underground portion of a plant, whether a true root or a tuber, a bulb or rootstock, as in the potato, the onion, or the sweet flag.

An edible or esculent root, especially of such plants as produce a single root, as the beet, carrot, etc.; as, the root crop.

That which resembles a root in position or function, esp. as a source of nourishment or support; that from which anything proceeds as if by growth or development; as, the root of a tooth, a nail, a cancer, and the like.

A primitive form of speech; one of the earliest terms employed in language; a word from which other words are formed; a radix, or radical.

The time which to reckon in making calculations.

That factor of a quantity which when multiplied into itself will produce that quantity; thus, 3 is a root of 9, because 3 multiplied into itself produces 9; 3 is the cube root of 27.

The lowest place, position, or part.

(botany) the usually underground organ that lacks buds or leaves or nodes; absorbs water and mineral salts; usually it anchors the plant to the ground

(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed;

The place where something begins, where it springs into being;

A number that when multiplied by itself some number of times equals a given number

The set of values that give a true statement when substituted into an equation

Someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

A simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes

The part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and serves as support

Take root and begin to grow;

Come into existence, originate;

Plant by the roots

Dig with the snout;

Take sides with; align oneself with; show strong sympathy for;

Become settled or established and stable in one's residence or life style;

Cause to take roots