root for

1. 1.

   take sides with; align oneself with; show strong sympathy for

   “We all rooted for the home team”

   “I'm pulling for the underdog”

   “Are you siding with the defender of the title?”

   Synonymspull

   Broaderside

Questions about root for

What does root for mean?

root for means "take sides with; align oneself with; show strong sympathy for".

What is another word for root for?

Close synonyms include pull. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is root for a common word?

root for is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.