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• roots
  roots

  adjective

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

  (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.

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

I still have my roots in California, and I still live in L.A., so this is my first special as this new version of me.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

With roots in U.S. defense and intelligence work, the U.S. remains Palantir’s core market.

From Barron's • May 4, 2026

Now, an ambitious international effort known as the Leonardo DNA Project is bringing scientists closer than ever to uncovering the biological roots of his genius.

From Science Daily • May 4, 2026

Spirit, which traces its roots to a Michigan trucking company founded in the 1960s, has been struggling for years.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026

I tried to move but my legs grew roots into the ground.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff