Root vs. Morpheme — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman & Urooj Arif — Updated on April 6, 2024
Roots are the basic units of word meaning from which other words grow, typically through the addition of prefixes and suffixes. Morphemes, on the other hand, are the smallest meaningful units in a language, which include roots as well as affixes.
Difference Between Root and Morpheme
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Roots serve as the core of a word, conveying its essential meaning, while morphemes can be roots or affixes (prefixes, suffixes) that modify the meaning of a root or combine with other morphemes to create new words. While a root can stand alone as a word, not all morphemes can, as affixes need to attach to a root or another morpheme.
Roots are integral to constructing words; they provide the semantic foundation upon which a word is built. Morphemes, encompassing both roots and affixes, are fundamental to the structure and creation of words, allowing for the expansion of language through the combination and recombination of these basic units.
The relationship between roots and morphemes is hierarchical; all roots are morphemes, but not all morphemes are roots. This distinction is crucial for understanding how words are formed and how their meanings can be modified or expanded.
In exploring the functions of roots and morphemes in language, it's evident that while roots provide the semantic core of words, morphemes play a critical role in shaping and expanding the lexicon, allowing for the expression of complex ideas and nuances in meaning.
Comparison Chart
Definition
The fundamental unit of a word's meaning.
The smallest unit of meaning in a language.
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Can Stand Alone
Yes, in most cases.
Not always; depends if it's a root or an affix.
Types
Only roots.
Roots and affixes (prefixes, suffixes).
Role in Word Formation
Serves as the word's base.
Used to form words and modify meanings.
Examples
"Friend" in "friendship".
"Un-", "friend", "-ly" in "unfriendly".
Compare with Definitions
Root
A word element from which other words grow, usually through the addition of prefixes and suffixes.
From the root bio, we get biology and biography.
Morpheme
Found in every word, representing the building blocks of language.
In disagree, dis- is a morpheme indicating opposition.
Root
A basic linguistic unit that carries meaning and cannot be further divided or analyzed.
The root spect in inspect means to look.
Morpheme
The smallest grammatical unit in a language.
The morpheme s in cats indicates plural.
Root
The base form of a word, devoid of any affixes.
Ped as in pedestrian refers to foot.
Morpheme
Can be a standalone word or a part of a word (such as a prefix or suffix).
Un- in unhappy means not, changing the meaning of happy.
Root
The primary component of a word, providing its core meaning.
Graph is the root in autograph, meaning to write.
Morpheme
A linguistic element that has semantic meaning.
Re- in return means to go back.
Root
A standalone word that serves as the starting point for building related words.
Act is a root that forms the basis for action, react, and actor.
Morpheme
Essential for constructing words and conveying nuances in meaning.
The morpheme -ed in talked denotes past tense.
Root
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.
Morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful lexical item in a language. A morpheme is not necessarily the same as a word.
Root
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
Root growth
Cacti have deep and spreading roots
A tree root
Morpheme
A meaningful linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts. The word man and the suffix -ed (as in walked) are morphemes.
Root
The basic cause, source, or origin of something
Money is the root of all evil
Jealousy was at the root of it
The root cause of the problem
Morpheme
(linguistic morphology) The smallest linguistic unit within a word that can carry a meaning.
Root
A number or quantity that when multiplied by itself, typically a specified number of times, gives a specified number or quantity.
Morpheme
The smallest unit of meaning of a language, which cannot be divided into smaller parts carrying meaning; it is usually smaller than a single wordform, such as the -ed morpheme of verbs in the past tense or the -s morpheme of nouns in the plural form.
Root
A user account with full and unrestricted access to a system
I need to log in as root on my system to resolve an issue
Make sure that these files can only be accessed by the root user
Morpheme
Minimal meaningful language unit; it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units
Root
An act of rooting
I had a root through the open drawers
Root
Cause (a plant or cutting) to grow roots
Root your own cuttings from stock plants
Root
Establish deeply and firmly
Vegetarianism is rooted in Indian culture
Root
Cause (someone) to stand immobile through fear or amazement
She found herself rooted to the spot in disbelief
Root
Gain access to the root account of (a smartphone or computer)
We explained how to manually root almost any Android device
Root
(of an animal) turn up the ground with its snout in search of food
Stray dogs rooting around for bones and scraps
Root
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.
Root
Any of various other underground plant parts, especially an underground stem such as a rhizome, corm, or tuber.
Root
The embedded part of an organ or structure such as a hair, tooth, or nerve, that serves as a base or support.
Root
The bottom or supporting part of something
We snipped the wires at the roots.
Root
The essential part or element; the basic core
I finally got to the root of the problem.
Root
A primary source; an origin.
Root
A progenitor or ancestor from which a person or family is descended.
Root
Often roots The condition of being settled and of belonging to a particular place or society
Our roots in this town go back a long way.
Root
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.
Root
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.
Root
Such an element reconstructed for a protolanguage. Also called radical.
Root
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.
Root
A number that reduces a polynomial equation in one variable to an identity when it is substituted for the variable.
Root
A number at which a polynomial has the value zero.
Root
The note from which a chord is built.
Root
Such a note occurring as the lowest note of a triad or other chord.
Root
To grow roots or a root
Carrot tops will root in water.
Root
To become firmly established or settled
The idea of tolerance has rooted in our culture.
Root
To plant and fix the roots of (a plant) in soil or the ground.
Root
To establish or settle firmly
Our love of the ocean has rooted us here.
Root
To be the source or origin of
"Much of [the team's] success was rooted in the bullpen" (Dan Shaughnessy).
Root
To dig or pull out by the roots. Often used with up or out
We rooted out the tree stumps with a tractor.
Root
To remove or get rid of. Often used with out
"declared that waste and fraud will be vigorously rooted out of Government" (New York Times).
Root
To turn up by digging with the snout or nose
Hogs that rooted up acorns.
Root
To cause to appear or be known. Used with out
An investigation that rooted out the source of the problem.
Root
To turn over the earth with the snout or nose.
Root
To search or rummage for something
Rooted around for a pencil in his cluttered office.
Root
To give audible encouragement or applause to a contestant or team; cheer.
Root
To give moral support to someone; hope for a favorable outcome for someone
We'll be rooting for you when you take the exam.
Root
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.
This tree's roots can go as deep as twenty metres underground.
Root
A root vegetable.
Root
The part of a tooth extending into the bone holding the tooth in place.
Root damage is a common problem of overbrushing.
Root
The part of a hair under the skin that holds the hair in place.
The root is the only part of the hair that is alive.
Root
The part of a hair near the skin that has not been dyed, permed, or otherwise treated.
He dyed his hair black last month, so the grey roots can be seen.
Root
(figurative) The primary source; origin.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
Root
(aviation) The section of a wing immediately adjacent to the fuselage.
Root
(engineering) The bottom of the thread of a threaded object.
The root diameter is the minor diameter of an external thread and the major diameter of an internal one.
Root
(arithmetic) Of a number or expression, a number which, when raised to a specified power, yields the specified number or expression.
The cube root of 27 is 3.
Root
(arithmetic) A square root (understood if no power is specified; in which case, "the root of" is often abbreviated to "root").
Multiply by root 2.
Root
(analysis) A zero (of an equation).
Root
The single node of a tree that has no parent.
Root
(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.
Root
(philology) A word from which another word or words are derived.
Root
(music) The fundamental tone of any chord; the tone from whose harmonics, or overtones, a chord is composed.
Root
The lowest place, position, or part.
Root
(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.
I have to log in as root before I do that.
Root
(computing) The highest directory of a directory structure which may contain both files and subdirectories.
I installed the files in the root directory.
Root
To grow roots; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.
The cuttings are starting to root.
Root
To prepare, oversee, or otherwise cause the rooting of cuttings.
We rooted some cuttings last summer.
Root
To be firmly fixed; to be established.
Root
To get root or privileged access on a computer system or mobile phone, often through bypassing some security mechanism.
We rooted his box and planted a virus on it.
I want to root my Android phone so I can remove the preinstalled crapware.
Root
(ambitransitive) To turn up or dig with the snout.
A pig roots the earth for truffles.
Root
(by extension) To seek favour or advancement by low arts or grovelling servility; to fawn.
Root
(intransitive) To rummage; to search as if by digging in soil.
Rooting about in a junk-filled drawer
Root
(intransitive) Of a baby: to turn the head and open the mouth in search of food.
Root
(transitive) To root out; to abolish.
Root
To cheer (on); to show support (for) and hope for the success of. See root for.
I'm rooting for you, don't let me down!
Root
To turn up the earth with the snout, as swine.
Root
Hence, to seek for favor or advancement by low arts or groveling servility; to fawn servilely.
Root
To turn up or to dig out with the snout; as, the swine roots the earth.
Root
To fix the root; to enter the earth, as roots; to take root and begin to grow.
In deep grounds the weeds root deeper.
Root
To be firmly fixed; to be established.
If any irregularity chanced to intervene and to cause misappehensions, he gave them not leave to root and fasten by concealment.
Root
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.
Root
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.
Root
To tear up by the root; to eradicate; to extirpate; - with up, out, or away.
The Lord rooted them out of their land . . . and cast them into another land.
Root
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.
Root
An edible or esculent root, especially of such plants as produce a single root, as the beet, carrot, etc.; as, the root crop.
Root
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.
They were the roots out of which sprang two distinct people.
Root
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 love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Root
The time which to reckon in making calculations.
When a root is of a birth yknowe [known].
Root
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.
Root
The lowest place, position, or part.
Root
(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
Root
(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed;
Thematic vowels are part of the stem
Root
The place where something begins, where it springs into being;
The Italian beginning of the Renaissance
Jupiter was the origin of the radiation
Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River
Communism's Russian root
Root
A number that when multiplied by itself some number of times equals a given number
Root
The set of values that give a true statement when substituted into an equation
Root
Someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
Root
A simple form inferred as the common basis from which related words in several languages can be derived by linguistic processes
Root
The part of a tooth that is embedded in the jaw and serves as support
Root
Take root and begin to grow;
This plant roots quickly
Root
Come into existence, originate;
The problem roots in her depression
Root
Plant by the roots
Root
Dig with the snout;
The pig was rooting for truffles
Root
Take sides with; align oneself with; show strong sympathy for;
We all rooted for the home team
I'm pulling for the underdog
Are you siding with the defender of the title?
Root
Become settled or established and stable in one's residence or life style;
He finally settled down
Root
Cause to take roots
Common Curiosities
What is a root?
A root is the fundamental component of a word that carries the core meaning and can sometimes stand alone as a word.
Are all morphemes words?
No, not all morphemes can stand alone as words; some, like prefixes and suffixes, need to attach to other morphemes.
How do roots and morphemes differ in word formation?
Roots provide the basic meaning from which words are formed, whereas morphemes, including roots and affixes, build upon and modify these meanings.
What is a morpheme?
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language, which can be a root or an affix (prefix/suffix).
What role do roots play in language?
Roots are the base from which words are derived, providing the primary semantic content of words.
How do linguists identify morphemes in a language?
By analyzing the smallest units of meaning that contribute to the structure and meaning of words.
Can a root be a morpheme?
Yes, all roots are morphemes as they carry meaning, but not all morphemes are roots.
Can a word have more than one morpheme?
Yes, words can have multiple morphemes, including a root and one or more affixes.
How do morphemes affect the meaning of words?
Morphemes can modify the meaning of a root or combine with other morphemes to create new words with distinct meanings.
What is an example of a root acting as a word?
The word "run" is both a root and a complete word on its own.
What is the difference between a root and a stem?
A root is the base meaning of a word, while a stem can include a root and other elements (like affixes) before more affixes are added.
Are morphemes always pronounced the same way?
No, the pronunciation of morphemes can change depending on their placement in a word or combination with other morphemes.
Why are roots and morphemes important in language learning?
Understanding them helps learners decipher meanings, form words, and enhance their linguistic comprehension and production skills.
Can affixes be considered morphemes?
Yes, affixes are morphemes that modify the meaning of roots or combine with other morphemes.
How do roots and morphemes contribute to word diversity?
They allow for the creation and modification of words, expanding the language with new meanings and nuances.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
