roots

British  

/ ruːts /

adjective

1. (of popular music) going back to the origins of a style, esp in being genuine and unpretentious

   roots rock

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Roots Cultural  

1. (1976) A Pulitzer Prize –winning novel by the African-American author Alex Haley, later made into a popular television drama. It traces a black American man's heritage to Africa, where his ancestors had been captured and sold as slaves.

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Other Word Forms

• rootsy adjective

Example Sentences

Block, a Toledo, Ohio-based media company that traces its roots back to 1900, is now a family business divided.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026

Edwards’ L.A. roots were critical to his identity as an artist.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026

The low-cost drones, the first one-way attack drones the U.S. deployed in the Iran war, have roots in America’s preparation for a separate potential conflict between the U.S. and China.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries, whose roots go back to 1886, is worth roughly $16 billion, including cash and debt, according to FactSet.

From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026

If tear drops could have made a fence post sprout roots and grow, that post would have grown twenty feet tall.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls