Meanings
plural roots of all evil
- Something that is perceived to be a root cause of all the world's evil.
idleness is the root of all evil, lust is the root of all evil
1 more example
The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
1974, Donald Knuth, “Turing Award Lecture”, in Communications of the ACM, page 671
Origin
Genericized in other phrases from (the love of) money is the root of all evil, which see.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch zaad van alle kwaad
- zaad van alle kwaadTranslations
Finnish kaiken pahan alku ja juuri
- kaiken pahan alku ja juuriTranslations
German Wurzel allen Übels, Ursprung alles Bösen
- Wurzel allen ÜbelsTranslations
- Ursprung alles BösenTranslations
Hungarian minden baj(nak)/rossz(nak) gyökere/forrása/kútforrása/oka
- minden baj(nak)/rossz(nak) gyökere/forrása/kútforrása/okaTranslations
Romanian rădăcina tuturor relelor
- rădăcina tuturor relelorTranslations
Cite this entry
root of all evil. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/root%20of%20all%20evil
“root of all evil.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/root%20of%20all%20evil. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “root of all evil,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/root%20of%20all%20evil.
Source: root of all evil on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.