route

Pluralroutes

Formsroutes, routeing, routed

1. 1
   travel pathnouncountable

   A course, path, or road along which someone or something travels or passes.

   The expedition followed a route through the mountain pass.

   Migrating birds follow the same routes south every year.

   UsageCommon patterns: take or follow a route, the route to a place, arrive by a different route.

   Similarcourse, path, way

   Note

   In this sense a route is the way taken rather than the ground itself, so it pairs with verbs of choosing and following, as in find a route or take a route, and with by, as in the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897), where the narrator and a judge travel "by a circuitous route." Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Winston Churchill was an American novelist. en.wikipedia.org
   • Winston Churchill wrote The Celebrity. gutenberg.org
   • The Celebrity was first published in 1897. en.wikipedia.org
   • The narrator describes himself and a judge traveling with the exact words “by a circuitous route.” gutenberg.org
2. 2
   nouncountable

   A fixed series of stops, or the way traveled between them, as for deliveries or carrying passengers.

   The airline added a new route between Denver and Tokyo.

   After twenty years on the same mail route, she knew every dog in the neighborhood.

   UsageCommon compounds: bus route, mail route, flight route. Drivers work on a route.

   Similarround, run, circuit, itinerary

3. 3
   methodnounfigurativelycountable

   One of several possible ways or approaches by which something can be done.

   Negotiation remained the most promising route to ending the dispute.

   Many actors take the theater route before moving into film.

   UsageOften the X route: take the legal route, the theater route; or a route to success.

   Similarpath, way, avenue, approach

   Note

   The traveler's choice of road becomes a choice of method. The figure works best when alternatives are in view: people weigh one route against another, ask which route leads to a goal, and say someone has taken a particular route, as in the route to success.

4. 4
   directverbtransitive

   To direct or divert someone or something along a particular course.

   Dispatchers route emergency calls to the nearest available unit.

   Engineers routed the new pipeline around the protected wetland.

   UsageUsually with a path word: route calls to a unit, mail through an office, a pipe around a wetland.

   Similardirect, send, divert, channel, steer

   Note

   Its present participle is routing in American English, while British English uses both routing and routeing. Routeing keeps the e so that it cannot be read as the participle of rout, "to defeat." The past form, routed, is spelled the same for both verbs, so in writing only context separates them; in speech they differ wherever route rhymes with boot. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Routing is used in American English; British English also has routeing. en.wiktionary.org
   • Retaining the e distinguishes routeing from the participle of rout. en.wikipedia.org
   • Rout means to defeat. en.wiktionary.org
   • The past forms have identical spelling, but pronunciation can distinguish them: in British English, routed from route is /ˈɹuː.tɪd/, whereas routed from rout is /ˈɹaʊ.tɪd/. Restrict the statement to writing. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   nouncountable

   In American football, the set path a receiver follows to break free of defenders and catch a pass.

   The tight end ran a short route over the middle and caught the ball for a first down.

   Rookie receivers often struggle to learn every route in the playbook.

   UsageThe usual verb is run: receivers run a route.

   Similarpattern

   Note

   Receivers run routes, and coaches and broadcasters name them by shape: slant, post, curl, go, out. The full set a receiver must know is called the route tree, and running crisp routes is one of the main skills scouts judge. Many Americans pronounce the word to rhyme with out, and that pronunciation is especially common in football talk. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Receivers run prescribed paths to get open for passes. en.wikipedia.org
   • A route tree represents the receiver's repertoire of routes. en.wikipedia.org
   • Scouts evaluate receivers' route-running ability. nfl.com
6. 6
   verbtransitive

   In computer networking, to send data from one network to another through a router, or to link networks this way.

   Modern switches can route packets between separate subnets.

   The gateway routes traffic from the office network out to the internet and back again.

   UsageOften routed through a server. The -ing form here is routing, as in routing table.

   Similarforward, direct, relay

   Note

   The verb that moves data rather than vehicles: a router consults its table entries and forwards each packet onward, so what gets routed is the information itself. The networks themselves can also be the object, when a router links them. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • A router uses table entries to choose where to forward a packet. rfc-editor.org
   • The material routed in this computing sense is information. en.wiktionary.org
   • Routers connect networks. rfc-editor.org

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