beginning and root share a recorded sense, so the question is not what they mean but which one fits. beginning means “the event consisting of the start of something”. root means “(botany) the usually underground organ that lacks buds or leaves or nodes; absorbs water and mineral salts; usually it anchors the plant to the ground”. beginning is the more common of the two in everyday English.
/bɪˈɡɪnɪŋ/
1.n.the event consisting of the start of something
“the beginning of the war”
2.n.the time at which something is supposed to begin
“they got an early start”
3.n.the first part or section of something
“`It was a dark and stormy night' is a hackneyed beginning for a story”
| beginning | root | |
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /bɪˈɡɪnɪŋ/ | /ˈɹut/ |
| Said | bi-GIN-ing | root |
| Syllables | 3 | 1 |
| Letters | 9 | 4 |
| Parts of speech | noun, adjective | noun, verb |
| Senses | 6 | 15 |
| How common | Core | Common |
| Synonyms | none recorded | none recorded |
Full entry for beginning · Full entry for root · More comparisons
/ˈɹut/
1.n.(botany) the usually underground organ that lacks buds or leaves or nodes; absorbs water and mineral salts; usually it anchors the plant to the ground
2.n.the place where something begins, where it springs into being
“the Italian beginning of the Renaissance”
3.n.(linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
“thematic vowels are part of the stem”