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For many English speakers (but not all, as explained below), the words root and route are homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings.
As a noun, root has several meanings, among them: (a) the part of a plant that grows underground, (b) the part of a tooth or hair that's attached to the body, (c) the essential element, core, or source of something, and (d) a word element from which other words are formed (see root in our Glossary of Grammatical Terms).
As a verb, root means to establish or settle, to dig in the ground, to rummage or search, or to cheer enthusiastically (for a contestant or team).
As a noun, route means a road for traveling, a way to get from one place to another, or a way of doing something.
As a verb, route means to send someone or something along a particular way or to divert in a specific direction.
Although in most dialects both root and route rhyme with boot, some speakers (especially in parts of the U.S.) pronounceroute so as to rhyme with out and rout. See the usage note below.
Examples:
- The dentist cut into my gum and removed the root of the tooth where it had broken off.
- "The first step, of course, was to plant grasses to hold the sand in place and keep it from shifting constantly. After the grasses took root, they could plant bushes, trees, flowers, and so forth."
(T.A. Pratt, Blood Engines. Bantam Dell, 2007) - "Go down through the orchard, root up the sod! Go down through the garden, dig up the radishes! Root up everything!"
(E.B. White, Charlotte's Web. Harper, 1952)
- "People in the audience would root for the contestants, and the viewers would be rooting for them, too. Everyone entered into the fun."
(Bob Barker, Priceless Memories. Hachette, 2009) - "In addition to mechanical problems, flights are often delayed by bad weather, as pilots must divert the plane hundreds of miles from the planned route so that they can fly directly into violent storms and cause the plane to shake like a giant paint mixer. This is the only real fun pilots have."
(Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Money Secrets. Three Rivers Press, 2006) - "He drew stick figures on the map. This is us, he said. The boy traced the route to the sea with his finger."
(Cormac McCarthy, The Road. Knopf, 2006)
Usage Note: Pronunciation of Route
"I prefer ROOT for all senses of the word route, but it is difficult to fashion an argument for it that goes further than saying that is how I was taught to pronounce it, that is how most educated speakers around me said it, and that is the pronunciation that feels right and cultivated to me.
"In my vocabulary, route will always be ROOT and rout ROWT, but many speakers prefer to pronounce both words ROWT. . . .
"[Bryan] Garner (2003) sanctions both pronunciations but notes that 'for quite some time, pronunciation specialists have heavily favored /root/.' Although ROWT has regained a good deal of ground since [John] Walker's day [in the late-18th century], ROOT still appears to hold a comfortable lead among educated speakers, and all six major current American dictionaries list it first."
(Charles Harrington Elster, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2005)
Practice:
(a) "Though for seven years I had walked this _____ to elementary school, there were houses in this block I knew nothing about."
(John Updike, Self-Consciousness. Random House, 1989)
(b) "I _____ through my dresser for a clean pair of cutoffs and a T-shirt, carry them into the bathroom with me, and turn on the shower."
(Sarah McCarry, All Our Pretty Songs. St. Martin's Griffin, 2013)
(c) "Let me _____, _____, _____ for the home team,
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."
(Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," 1908)
(d) "Emotions are at the _____ of our behavior. They are the driving force behind motivation and behind any decision to take action (people generally move toward pleasure and away from pain)."
(Yvonne Oswald, Every Word Has Power. Atria, 2008)
Answers to Practice Exercises