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

rooting compound, rooting reflex, rootkit, rootle, rootless, rootlet, roots, roots blower, roots music, rootserver, rootstalk

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