A root is the most basic part of a word, which carries the fundamental meaning, and cannot be further broken down. A stem is made up of a root plus derivational affixes or processes, it is the part of the word that can take inflections. (In cases where there are no derivational affixes, the root and the stem will be identical.) For example, the verbal root "write" can take various derivational affixes to form different stems: rewrite (verb), overwrite (verb), writer (noun), writing (noun). These stems, in turn, can be inflected: rewrites, rewriting, rewritten; overwrites, overwriting; writers, writer's, writers'. "Write" can also be a stem by itself and can be inflected: writes, writing, written, etc.