Words. Rooted. Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the Words. Rooted.™ app for iPhone and Android, including versions published as Trace the Word, and this website’s Words. Rooted. pages (together, the “service”). The service is published by SEQUOYAH SYSTEMS — A Division of Sequoyah Institute for Technology LLC (“we”, “us”). By downloading or using the service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use it.

What the service is

Words. Rooted. is a word-exploration app. It shows definitions, etymology, pronunciation and related words for English words, and lets you follow a word’s connections through deeper word journeys. Content is educational and is provided for general interest and learning.

Your license and its limits

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to download, install and use Words. Rooted. on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use, and as the app store you downloaded from permits, including any family-sharing feature it offers. The app is licensed, not sold. We and our licensors keep all rights not expressly granted.

You may not, and may not help anyone else to: copy, modify, translate or create derivative works of the app or its content except as the law expressly allows; sell, rent, lease, lend, redistribute or sublicense it; reverse engineer, decompile or try to extract source code or underlying data sets except to the extent applicable law permits despite this limit; remove proprietary notices or attributions; or use the app to build a competing product or data set.

Free access and Gold access

Free. Words. Rooted. is free to download. Ordinary word searches, with definitions, origins and related-word information, are unlimited and need no payment. You can also open three deeper word journeys per UTC day without paying. A deeper word journey is opening a distinct qualifying Rabbit Hole word; reopening a word you have already opened that UTC day does not use another journey. The daily count resets at 00:00 UTC, which may fall at a different local time where you live. Do not try to evade the limit (see Acceptable use).

Gold. Words. Rooted. Gold is an optional auto-renewing subscription that gives you unlimited deeper word journeys. We may change how the daily limit is measured or applied, and we will only describe in the app or here what is actually available.

Subscription terms. Gold is offered as a monthly subscription and an annual subscription; each renews automatically for the same period until canceled. Prices below are in U.S. dollars; the price, currency and taxes shown by your store at purchase are the ones that apply to you.

• Monthly: where the introductory offer is shown to you at purchase, $0.99 in total for your first three months, which is less than three regular monthly payments, then $0.99 per month until you cancel. The introductory price is charged once and is available once per eligible new subscriber; Apple or Google determines eligibility on its own store, and an offer shown on one store is not promised on the other.
• Annual: $9.99 per year, renewing yearly until you cancel.
• Subscription title: Words. Rooted. Gold. Length: one month or one year, as chosen at purchase. Links to our Privacy Policy and these Terms are provided here and in the app.

Store-managed purchases, billing, renewals, cancellation and refunds

Gold subscriptions are sold and billed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play), not by us, and each purchase is also governed by that store’s terms. We do not receive or store your payment card details. We use RevenueCat to confirm whether your subscription is active so the app can unlock the right features. The rules differ by store:

If you subscribed through the Apple App Store:

• Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Apple may charge for the next period shortly before it begins, as its terms describe.
• The subscription renews automatically for the same period at the then-current price until you cancel. To avoid being charged for the next period, turn off auto-renew in your Apple ID subscription settings before the renewal date shown there. Apple’s terms determine exactly when a cancellation takes effect, and you keep access for the period you have already paid for unless Apple says otherwise.
• Manage or turn off auto-renew in your Apple ID account settings (Settings > your name > Subscriptions). Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription.
• If Apple offers a free trial or introductory price, it is shown in the purchase sheet; a trial may convert to a paid subscription unless cancelled in time under Apple’s terms.
• Price increases, Family Sharing, failed payments and refund requests are handled by Apple under its policies. We cannot issue refunds for App Store purchases.

If you subscribed through Google Play:

• Payment is charged to your Google Play payment method at the start of each billing period; Google may authorize or charge shortly before renewal, as its terms describe.
• The subscription renews automatically until you cancel. To avoid being charged for the next period, cancel before the renewal date shown in your Google Play subscriptions. Cancelling stops future renewals and you keep access for the period you have already paid for. Google’s terms determine exactly when a cancellation takes effect.
• Manage or cancel in Google Play: Subscriptions in the Play Store, or your device Settings > Google > Payments & subscriptions. Uninstalling the app does not cancel the subscription.
• If Google offers a free trial or introductory price, it is shown before you confirm; a trial may convert to a paid subscription unless cancelled in time under Google’s terms.
• Price increases, family arrangements, failed payments and refund requests are handled by Google under its policies. We cannot issue refunds for Google Play purchases.

For both stores: Introductory prices, free trials and other offers apply only where the store shows them to you at purchase, and the store determines eligibility; an offer available on one store is not promised on the other. If a payment fails, the store may suspend or end your paid access. Taxes and currency are set by the store. Deleting your Words. Rooted. account does not cancel a subscription; cancel it with Apple or Google. We do not promise refunds, but nothing in these Terms removes any refund or withdrawal right you have under the law where you live or under the store’s own policy. You can restore an active subscription on a new device using the restore option in the app, signed in to the same Apple ID or Google account.

Relationship to the store terms. Apple’s Standard End User License Agreement (EULA) is the default license for apps from the Apple App Store and, as written, also covers content and services accessed or purchased within the app. It applies unless a custom license agreement for your region is shown on the app’s App Store page, in which case that agreement applies in its place. For Apple users, these Terms add service-specific rules and do not replace that license. If these Terms and the license Apple applies conflict about your license to use the app on an Apple device, the Apple license controls on that point. Apple’s license has its own warranty, liability and governing-law provisions for the app license; they do not by themselves govern the other parts of these Terms, the website, or purchases made through Google Play. If you downloaded from Google Play, Google Play’s terms apply to the purchase, and these Terms are the end user license terms between you and us.

Apple-specific acknowledgements. For the app on Apple devices: (a) these Terms are between you and us only, not Apple, and we, not Apple, are solely responsible for the app and its content; (b) we, not Apple, are responsible for maintenance and support (see Support), and Apple has no obligation to provide any; (c) if the app fails to meet an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, which will refund the purchase price of the app (if any), and otherwise, to the maximum extent the law allows, Apple has no warranty obligation and other warranty claims are our responsibility; (d) we, not Apple, are responsible for claims by you or anyone else relating to the app or your use of it, including product liability claims, claims that the app does not meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and consumer-protection claims; (e) we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating and resolving third-party intellectual property infringement claims about the app; (f) you must comply with applicable third-party terms, such as your mobile data provider’s, when using the app; and (g) Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms for Apple users and may enforce them against you. We, not Google, are likewise responsible for the app on Google Play. Questions, complaints or claims about the app go to us at the contact details in the Contact section.

Educational content and its limits

The linguistic and historical content in the service, including etymologies, word histories, relationships between words, pronunciations and example material, is educational. It draws on third-party lexical sources, including Wiktionary, Kaikki and Princeton WordNet, some of which are openly licensed (for example under Creative Commons or the WordNet license), and on automated processing; source links are provided in the app. Etymology is a field where scholars disagree, evidence is sometimes incomplete, and entries can contain errors or omissions. We do not guarantee that any entry is complete, current or correct, and it should not be relied on as an authoritative or academic citation without checking primary sources. If you find a mistake, please tell us at legal@sequoyahinstitutefortechnology.com.

Some entries include vulgar, offensive or derogatory words because they are real words with real history; they are shown for reference and are not endorsed, and their presence does not reflect our views. Words. Rooted. does not provide legal, medical, professional or translation advice.

Family & Classroom filtering

Family & Classroom is a planned content-filtering mode that we intend to implement before the app’s public release. Until it is released and verified in the version of the app you are using, nothing in the service should be understood as filtering content for children or classrooms. When it is released, we will describe in the app what it does and does not do. It is intended as a convenience for adults and educators. We do not certify the service or that mode as child-safe, age-appropriate or compliant with any children’s privacy or online-safety law, we do not guarantee that all unsuitable content will be hidden, and it is not a substitute for adult supervision. Words. Rooted. remains a general-audience app not directed to children under 13, as described in the Privacy Policy. Parents, guardians and educators remain responsible for what children and students access on their devices.

Your account

Some features require an account. You must give accurate information, including a working email address, and keep it current. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials confidential and for activity under your account, and you should not share your account or let others use it. Tell us promptly at legal@sequoyahinstitutefortechnology.com if you believe your account has been used without permission.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. Words. Rooted. is not directed to children under 13. Where the law of your country sets a higher age for consent, that age applies.

You can delete your account at any time in the app or through our account deletion page. How we handle information is described in our Privacy Policy, which is not part of these Terms but explains our data practices.

Acceptable use

You agree to use the service lawfully and in good faith. You may not:

• break, bypass or disable security features, usage limits, entitlement or subscription checks;
• access the service by automated means, or scrape, crawl, bulk-download or systematically copy its content or data, except as a public search engine does under our robots rules;
• use the service or its content to train, fine-tune or benchmark a machine-learning model without our written permission;
• interfere with or overload the service, introduce malicious code, or probe it for vulnerabilities without our permission;
• impersonate anyone, use another person’s account, or misrepresent your affiliation;
• resell, republish or commercially exploit the service or its content;
• use the service in violation of applicable law or anyone else’s rights.

Intellectual property and feedback

Words. Rooted., its software, design, selection and arrangement of content, names and logos are owned by Sequoyah Institute for Technology LLC or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. Words. Rooted.™ is a mark of Sequoyah Institute for Technology LLC. Nothing in these Terms gives you any right to use our names, marks or logos.

Some content comes from third-party or openly licensed sources and remains subject to its own license and attribution terms, as noted in the app or on this website. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of that content to you, and nothing restricts rights you hold under an open license.

If you send us suggestions, corrections or other feedback, you allow us to use them without payment or obligation to you, and without crediting you. If you believe content in the service infringes your copyright or other rights, email legal@sequoyahinstitutefortechnology.com with the details, and we will review it.

Third-party services and content

The service depends on and may link to services we do not control, including Apple and Google, RevenueCat, data and content sources, map and location data, and websites. They are governed by their own terms and privacy practices. We are not responsible for their content, availability, accuracy or conduct, may add or remove them at any time, and using them is at your own risk. Information from them is displayed for general information only.

Support

Support information is on our Support page, or email legal@sequoyahinstitutefortechnology.com. We aim to reply within 2 business days; this is a goal, not a guarantee. We provide support for the app; Apple and Google do not.

Changes to the service and to these Terms

We may add, change, suspend or discontinue features or content, including the split between free and Gold features, with notice in the app or on this website where a change is significant. We may update these Terms. For significant changes we will update the effective date and give notice in the app or on this page before the change takes effect where practical. Continuing to use the service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you do not accept them, stop using the service and cancel any subscription with Apple or Google. Changes to subscription prices are made through the store’s own price-change process, which may require your consent.

Suspension and termination

You may stop using the service at any time. We may suspend or end your access, with notice where practical, if you violate these Terms, if your use creates risk or legal exposure for us or others, if we must do so to comply with the law, or if we discontinue the service. Your license ends when these Terms end. Ending access does not by itself cancel a store subscription; cancel it with Apple or Google. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including intellectual property, disclaimers, limits of liability and general terms, survive.

Disclaimers

The service is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the extent the law allows, we do not make promises that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free or fit for a particular purpose, and we do not give warranties of any kind about it, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. We do not warrant that content is accurate, complete or current, or that the service is free of harmful components. You are responsible for decisions you make using the service. Some places do not allow some of these exclusions, so they may not apply to you.

Limits of liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the service, including loss of data, profits or goodwill, or for events beyond our reasonable control such as outages of networks, device makers, stores or other providers. Nothing in these Terms limits any right or liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including consumer rights where you live, liability for fraud, and liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence. Where Apple’s license applies to your use of the app on an Apple device, it contains its own limits; they apply to that license in addition to this section and do not extend to our other services.

Legal compliance

You agree to comply with laws that apply to your use of the service, including export, sanctions and trade laws. You confirm that you are not in a country or on a list that prohibits you from receiving the app under United States or local law. If the service is used by or for a U.S. government customer, it is commercial software licensed on the same terms as everyone else.

General

These Terms, together with the store terms described above, are the whole agreement between you and us about the service and replace earlier understandings about it. If part of these Terms cannot be enforced, the rest stays in effect. If we do not enforce a right right away, we have not given it up. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms; we may transfer ours as part of a business reorganization or sale, with notice where the law requires. We may give notice by posting in the app or on this website, or by email to the address on your account. These Terms do not choose a governing law or court; your rights under the law where you live, and any governing-law term in the Apple license that applies to your Apple-device license, are not affected.

Contact

SEQUOYAH SYSTEMS — A Division of Sequoyah Institute for Technology LLC
Email: legal@sequoyahinstitutefortechnology.com
6545 Market Ave. North, Ste 100
Canton, Ohio 44721, U.S.A.