route
Americannoun
-
routes
plural
-
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)
-
routes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
routed,
past participle, past
-
routing
present participle
-
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
-
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
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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:
She worried about the route that authorities had mandated for the demonstration in Paris, pointing out that parts of it were "extremely narrow" and that it passed by a gas station.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
In the lead-up to Nov. 3, the agency’s plan is to route ballots meant for local election offices to a nearby postal facility or directly to their destination.
From Salon ● Oct. 24, 2026
In Marseille, where more than 300 shops were looted, authorities initially banned all demonstrations before allowing a union-led march along a designated route.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026
In one mission Thursday night, five out of 10 drones were lost when the connection failed en route, the pilot said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
“It doesn’t seem the most rational or reasonable route to take, Nighthand.”
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
"I have to wonder if they even have Google Maps at the prefecture when they authorise routes like this."
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
Some ferry services between the UK and France were cancelled, while National Rail advised many routes were travelling at slower speeds.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
In some cases, rerouting flights has added hours to flight times; in other cases airlines have opted for shorter alternative routes that carry their own risks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
Green Gen has plans to build three major power line routes connecting onshore wind farms planned by its sister company Bute Energy with the wider grid network.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
As desperation started to kick in, I tried to think of alternate routes my mom and I could take to get out of Belgium.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
The 57-year-old tycoon is the most prominent defendant in a trial starting Tuesday in Antananarivo over five Boeing 777s routed to Iran via temporary Malagasy registrations to circumvent multiple US sanctions.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
Twice in the space of three minutes, Josh McPake - one of the form players in the country - took on Donovan and twice Donovan routed him.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
The tip in Philadelphia was routed to spam and didn’t prompt any police follow-up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Eagles were routed by San Pedro last week.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
As the forest’s warning became louder, more plangent and strident, William’s buoyant mood shivered, quailed, and fled like a routed army from the field.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
His model bypasses traditional philanthropy routing through organizations and causes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026
That routing avoids the Saudi airspace and didn’t change the overall flight time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
In response, Congress established the current system, routing most disputes through the VA and its specialized appellate courts.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026
Over the last several years, work crews there have been restoring natural floodplains along rivers and creeks, building recharge basins, and routing floodwater to farm fields where it can soak into the land.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
I have thrown this routing in as a sop and shall not make a habit of it.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
