Meaning – The term root Directory, refers to the top-level directory of a file system. The directory structure can be visually represented as an upside-down tree, so the term “root” represents the top level.
While all file systems have a root directory, they may be labeled differently depending on the operating system.
The root directory of a website is not the top-level directory of the volume, but rather the top-level directory of the website folder. On an Apache server, for example, the name of the root directory is public_html and is located within the primary user folder for the website.
Example of usage – “In a computer file system, and primarily used in the Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the root directory is the first or top-most directory in a hierarchy. It can be likened to the trunk of a tree, as the starting point where all branches originate from.”