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taproot

US/ˈtæpˌɹuːt/
nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechmostly written

Other forms: taproots

A taproot is the single thick root that drives straight down. A deep taproot.

It reaches water that shallow roots cannot, which is why a dandelion survives any drought. A taproot broken during transplanting usually kills the plant.

KaitlinLiu · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of taproot

  1. 1nountaprootThe single thick root that drives straight down.C1

    “The taproot went down more than a metre in that sandy soil.”

taproot is a root.

Where it comes from

Tap plus root; the spelling was tap-root through the nineteenth century.

From tap + root. The oldest use (by Philemon Holland) is spaced as tap root. In the 18th and 19th centuries the standard spelling was tap-root.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Trees & Flowers

Practise this word

taproot in the wild

  • A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally and horizontally.

    Taproot

  • Typically, a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows straight down.

    Taproot

  • A fibrous root system is the opposite of a taproot system.

    Fibrous root system

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.