Root

In botany, plant roots[?] are the portion of a plant which is below the level of the soil. Roots have a tendency to grow downward in order to reach more nutrients and water which the plant needs to survive.

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In Unix style computer operating systems, root is the name of the user who has all rights on permissions in all modes (single or multi user). Normally this is the administrator's account. Additionally it refers to the base of the file system's directory structure, written as a single forward slash (/). If a person 'has root access' it means that they are able to act as the administrator of that computer.

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There is a alternative hip hop group called The Roots.

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In mathematics, a root of a function f is an element x in the codomain of f such that f(x)=0. For example, 3 is a root of f(x)=x²-6x+9. A substantial amount of mathematics was developed in order to find roots of various functions, especially polynomials. For example, the roots of a quadratic are given by the quadratic formula, and the Fundamental theorem of algebra states that every polynomial of degree n has n complex roots. See also: square root.

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In computer science, the root of a tree structure is the starting node.

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In etymology, a root comprises the core form of a word, often in a primitive attestation or even in a reconstruction. Root forms have importance in deducing the structure of language families such as those of Semitic or Dravidian languages.

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