- the choice of roads taken to get to a place
- a regular journey travelled
- (capital) US a main road between cities: Route 66
- to plan the route of; send by a particular route
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
route /rut, raʊt/USA pronunciation
n., v., rout•ed, rout•ing.
n. [countable]
v. [~ + object]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026n. [countable]
- a course, way, or road for travel:the shortest route from here to Alaska.
- a customary line of travel, often with stops regularly made, by a train, bus, etc., or by a person in doing a job:the route taken by that bus; a newspaper route.
v. [~ + object]
- to fix the path or route of:to route a tour.
- to send by a particular route:Calls were routed through the switchboard.
route
(ro̅o̅t, rout),USA pronunciation n., v., rout•ed, rout•ing.
n.
v.t.
n.
- 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:a ship on the North Atlantic route.
- a specific itinerary, round, or number of stops regularly visited by a person in the performance of his or her work or duty:a newspaper route; a mail carrier's route.
- go the route, [Informal.]
- to see something through to completion:It was a tough assignment, but he went the route.
- Sport[Baseball.]to pitch the complete game:The heat and humidity were intolerable, but the pitcher managed to go the route.
v.t.
- to fix the route of:to route a tour.
- to send or forward by a particular route:to route mail to its proper destination.
- Latin rupta (via) broken (road), feminine past participle of rumpere to break; compare rout1
- Old French
- Middle English: way, course 1175–1225
- 3. beat, circuit.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
route /ruːt; US: raʊt/ n
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 rout1, to defeat or rout2, 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
'route' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
airway
- arterial
- autoroute
- backtrack
- beat
- beeline
- big dipper
- Burma Road
- bus
- Cape Horn
- Champlain
- Charing Cross
- circuit
- circuitous
- climb
- communicate
- communication
- corridor
- countermarch
- course
- cut
- cut across
- cut off
- detour
- devious
- Dias
- direct
- diversion
- end up
- en route
- escape
- fast lane
- fast-track
- flyway
- Gama
- gap
- get away
- go
- head
- headway
- inside lane
- itinerary
- Jalalabad
- lane
- Lanzhou
- Las Palmas
- lead
- line
- main line
- march