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”; cf. rout ¹

Explanation

A route is a way for travel or movement, the path from point A to point B. A route can also be the method used for achieving a particular result, like going to school and working hard is your route to success. Route comes from an Old French word, rute, “road,” “way,” or “path” and the Latin rupta, “broken way” or “beaten way.” A route can be a highway, like Route 66, or all the places you pass through on the way somewhere, like using a map to find the shortest route. As a verb, route means "to send people or things on a particular course," like detour signs that route you through unfamiliar streets or a package that is routed through Cleveland on its way to you.

Example Sentences

But stock markets sank again on Friday after an exchange of fire between Iranian and US forces in Hormuz, which fuelled fears renewed fighting could delay or derail the re-opening of the route.

From Barron's • May 8, 2026

Metro plans to open the D Line extension in three phases, with a goal of completing the full route by fall 2027.

From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026

He is enthusiastic about novel designs—and recently joined a nuclear-shipping startup—but thinks the best route to cheap nuclear power is figuring out how to build big plants efficiently.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026

“Not only is it the most expensive route, but it also deters from your actual mission, and so I decided that I would go down that path and build it.”

From MarketWatch • May 7, 2026

I’d say the cattle camp was 18 to 24 miles away, depending on the route, through some rocky areas and a lot of shrubs.

From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola

Related Words

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