at the root of

idiom

: the reason for (something)
Simple greed was at the root of the robbery.

Examples of at the root of in a Sentence

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At the end of this week’s episode 2, Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) finally gets a hold of a professional contact named Kenny, who is at the root of some serious trouble back home. Dan Heching, CNN, 24 Feb. 2025 In fact, there are a number of physiological processes that take place in your body when the days get shorter and the weather gets colder that could be at the root of your fatigue. Sherri Gordon, Health, 9 Dec. 2024 Scalpers are a big problem making the concert-going experience worse — but at the root of the chaos is unmanageable, roof-shattering demand that has warped beyond recognition what people are willing to pay for a show. Whizy Kim, Vox, 12 Feb. 2025 This gentleness and this geometry were at the root of the Bethe ansatz’s power, as the Australian physicist Rodney Baxter argued in the early 1970s. Quanta Magazine, 12 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for at the root of

Cite this Entry

“At the root of.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/at%20the%20root%20of. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.

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