trade route
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of trade route
First recorded in 1875–80
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.
Shipping traffic remains throttled in the Strait of Hormuz, a trade route off Iran’s coast that fully a third of the world’s seagoing oil exports traverse in a normal year.
From Slate • Mar. 11, 2026
The visit is expected to advance a flagship transport communications project integrating the two countries into a new east-west trade route.
From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026
Djibouti has only around one million inhabitants but lies on the strategic trade route of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea.
From Barron's • Oct. 29, 2025
El Paso, which means “the pass,” got its name from Spanish explorers who arrived in the late 16th century and established a trade route here leading from Mexico City to Santa Fe.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 27, 2025
Particularly important, the Teotihuacan-backed dynasty took over several outposts on the Usumacinta River system, Yucatan’s most important trade route.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
![]()
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.