route

American  

[root, rout] / rut, raʊt /

noun

1. a course, way, or road for passage or travel.

   What's the shortest route to Boston?

2. a customary or regular line of passage or travel.

   There's a ship from our company on the North Atlantic route.

3. a specific itinerary, round, or number of stops regularly visited by a person in the performance of their work or duty.

   a newspaper route;

   a mail carrier's route.

   Synonyms:

   circuit, beat

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verb (used with object)

routed, routing

1. to set the path of.

   to route a tour.

2. to send or forward by a particular course or road.

   It's the post office's job to route mail to its proper destination.

idioms

1. go the route,

   1. to see something through to completion.

      It was a tough assignment, but he went the route.

   2. Baseball. to pitch the complete game.

      The heat and humidity were intolerable, but the pitcher managed to go the route.

route British  

/ ruːt /

noun

1. the choice of roads taken to get to a place

2. a regular journey travelled

3. (capital) a main road between cities

   Route 66

4. mountaineering the direction or course taken by a climb

5. med the means by which a drug or agent is administered or enters the body, such as by mouth or by injection

   oral route

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verb

1. to plan the route of; send by a particular route

Usage

When forming the present participle or verbal noun from the verb to route it is preferable to retain the e in order to distinguish the word from routing , the present participle or verbal noun from rout ¹ , to defeat or rout ² , to dig, rummage: the routeing of buses from the city centre to the suburbs . The spelling routing in this sense is, however, sometimes encountered, esp in American English

Other Word Forms

• misroute verb (used with object)
• preroute verb (used with object)
• reroute verb

Etymology

Origin of route

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English: “way, course,” from Old French, from Latin rupta (via) “broken (road),” feminine past participle of rumpere “to break”; rout ¹

Example Sentences

It also placed a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that serves as a critical shipping route through which a fifth of the world's energy shipments usually transits.

From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026

Bettors on prediction market platform Polymarket have wagered a 48% chance of traffic through the route going back to normal by the end of April, down from 65% one month ago.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 8, 2026

Paramedics coordinated with the pair en route, meeting near the intersection of North Lewis and Las Posas roads to provide medical assistance, according to Dowd.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

Further escalation brings with it more potential threats to the region’s energy infrastructure and possibly even the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia’s alternative oil-export route.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

I pass my room and keep walking toward the back of the ship, following the mirrored route on the opposite side of the ship until I’m out of breath.

From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera

Related Words

• avenue
• course
• direction
• itinerary
• journey
• line
• passage
• road
• track
• trail
• way