Word.ws English Dictionary

root-and-branch

root-and-branch is the alternative form of root and branch.

Meaning of root and branch

Adjective

root and branch (not comparable)

  1. Total, thorough, sweeping, complete, radical, drastic.
    • When, in 1872, Sir Charles Dilke once more returned to the charge in the House of Commons, introducing a motion for a full enquiry into the Queen's expenditure with a view to a root and branch reform of the Civil List, […]1921, Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria

See all 2 meanings of root and branch

Questions about root-and-branch

What is root-and-branch the alternative form of?
Root-and-branch is the alternative form of root and branch.

Words near root-and-branch in the dictionary

  1. root voles
  2. root word
  3. root words
  4. root zone
  5. root zones
  6. root-and-branch
  7. root-and-brancher
  8. root-and-branchers
  9. root-bound
  10. root-cause
  11. root-caused

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: root-and-branch (page history and authors); root and branch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “root-and-branch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/root-and-branch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.