Rooting

How to spell rooting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rooting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rooting mean?

1. verbDigging or rummaging around in search of something.
2. verbCheering for or actively supporting a person or team.
3. verbOf a plant or cutting, developing roots and becoming established.

Rooting in a sentence

• She spent ten minutes rooting through the drawer for her passport.

• The whole office was rooting for her to land the promotion.

• The cuttings are rooting nicely in the jar of water on the windowsill.

• The dog kept rooting in the flower bed for buried bones.

• Fans packed the stadium, rooting for the home side.

• Warm soil helps the new seedlings begin rooting quickly.

Where does rooting come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'root' comes from the Old Norse 'rot', meaning the underground part of a plant that anchors it and draws up water; it entered English in the late Old English period and gradually displaced the native form. From the literal botanical sense grew the verb meaning to take root or to establish firmly, and from there the everyday idea of being 'rooted' to a spot. A separate but related strand, traceable to Old English 'wrotan' meaning to dig with the snout (as a pig does), gave English the sense of rooting about in the soil and, by extension, rummaging through things in search of something. The cheering sense, 'rooting for' a team, is chiefly North American and is often linked to this digging-and-striving image. The double 'o' simply preserves the long vowel of 'root', and the main spelling trap is its near-identity in some accents with 'routing', the directing of a route.

How the word is built

• root (from Old Norse rot, an underground part of a plant)
• -ing (present participle suffix)

Words that sound like rooting

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• routing: The act of sending people, goods, or data along a chosen path or course.