route
Americannoun
-
a course, way, or road for passage or travel.
What's the shortest route to Boston?
-
a customary or regular line of passage or travel.
There's a ship from our company on the North Atlantic route.
-
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.
verb (used with object)
-
to set the path of.
to route a tour.
-
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
noun
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the choice of roads taken to get to a place
-
a regular journey travelled
-
(capital) a main road between cities
Route 66
-
mountaineering the direction or course taken by a climb
-
med the means by which a drug or agent is administered or enters the body, such as by mouth or by injection
oral route
verb
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
routesimple
-
routessimple
-
have routedperfect
-
has routedperfect
-
am routingprogressive
-
are routingprogressive
-
is routingprogressive
-
have been routingperfect progressive
-
has been routingperfect progressive
Past
-
routedsimple
-
had routedperfect
-
was routingprogressive
-
were routingprogressive
-
had been routingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing route
The Best Starting Words for Wordle
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Make a Break for It: Rupt
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American Football, 1st Quarter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The route someone follows depends on the basis of their immigration status and their individual circumstances, including factors such as family life, work, length of residence and private life in the UK.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
A route became dangerous, then known, then avoided.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
"In a spirit of national solidarity with the areas and communities affected, it was decided to adapt the route for the final stage from Thoiry to Paris," organisers ASO said in a statement.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
By comparison, the eyes of insects and squid arose through a different evolutionary route involving tissue on the surface of the head.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
Nikita Khrushchev’s urgent message to John Kennedy followed the usual route.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Nor because professional routes were not an option.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
"Just days ago a body was found on the beach in Berck. These are preventable tragedies. It could all be stopped overnight by opening safe routes."
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Arab governments are now weighing whether they might need to become more aggressive in trying to pry open their critical trade routes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Changes in sea level sometimes narrowed or removed marine barriers, creating temporary routes that animals could use to move between regions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026
Around ten or eleven, the drivers would start coming back from their morning routes.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
It was that public safety had to be routed through either federal or state policing for the claim to become legible.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Tech firms were once again in the crosshairs, with South Korea's Kospi extending a painful selloff as chip titan SK hynix continued to be routed amid growing fears about the AI boom.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
Aviation Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis told reporters a plane had earlier routed back to Nassau when the pilot reported an issue.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
So, when Tucker logged three hits, including a home run, on Saturday as the Dodgers routed the Padres 15-3, he was cautious in his optimism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2026
The Austrian army had been routed when the Italians, heavily reinforced by British and French divisions, finally went on the offensive.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
“A rapid return to normal is unlikely given logistical constraints, including mine clearance, routing bottlenecks, and Iranian transit frictions,” economists at Societe Generale wrote in a note to clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
A VPN also adds a layer of protection against government surveillance by both encrypting internet traffic and routing it through secure servers, often located in different countries.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
“Regardless of the possible merits of new transmission, routing it through the heart of California’s largest state park makes no sense,” said Brendan Cummings, conservation director with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026
When they got jobs, I helped them fill out the direct-deposit forms, showing them how to find the routing and account numbers, and, yes, patiently explaining the meaning and correct usage of said routing number.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
Or we pass around our routing sheet and study the day’s owners’ “Hot Buttons,” as sketched in by Tammy.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
