roots
/ɹuːts/noun
roots is spelled R-O-O-T-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, roots means “Ancestry” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in roots?
| Letters | 5: R-O-O-T-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 4,015th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is roots?
Roots appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce roots?
- /ɹuːts/
- /ɹʊts/
Roots has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-roots.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with roots?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as roots.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: torso, roost, ostro.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does roots mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Ancestry.
I have both Irish and German roots.
- 2
Beginnings; origin.
Jazz has its roots in blues.
- 3
Grown-out hair, often of a grey or natural colour.
I just coloured my hair and already my roots are showing.
- 4
plural of root
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Roots in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | aïeux , sources, origines |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.