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

As a result, many students have chosen a traditional college when they might have been better served by a trade school, military service or another route.

From The Wall Street Journal

It was no surprise that the opening goal came from a corner -- only West Ham have conceded more goals from that route in the Premier League this season than Forest's eight.

From Barron's

Because fibrosis involves many biological routes at once, drugs that target only one pathway often have limited success.

From Science Daily

With him directing the attack, the Galaxy set a record with four players scoring 10 or more times en route a sixth MLS title.

From Los Angeles Times

About 85 Ethiopian migrants were travelling along the eastern migration route when the lorry overturned in the town of Semera on Tuesday morning, a senior Afar official Mohammed Ali Biedo said in a statement.

From BBC

Related Words

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