rootlet

[ root-lit, roo t- ]

/ ˈrut lɪt, ˈrʊt- /

noun Botany.

a little root.

a small or fine branch of a root.

one of the adventitious roots by which ivy or the like clings to rocks or other supports.

Nearby words

Origin of rootlet

First recorded in 1785–95; root¹ + -let

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for rootlet

It sent downward a rootlet to get soil and water, and upward it shot a stem to which the first pair of leaves was attached.
Arbor Day Leaves|N.H. Egleston
At last it lit upon a rootlet of the tree quite over her shoulder.
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales|Bret Harte
But how is material conveyed from rootlet to veinlet of leaf hundreds of feet away?
Among the Forces|Henry White Warren
Every growing shoot of a great tree is continually describing small ellipses; the tip of every rootlet endeavours to do the same.
Life of Charles Darwin|G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany

No structure in plants appears more wonderful, as Darwin describes it, than the tip of the rootlet of a seedling.
Life of Charles Darwin|G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany

British Dictionary definitions for rootlet

rootlet

/ (ˈruːtlɪt) /

noun

a small root or branch of a root

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012