routes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of route.

   Mountain rescue teams mapped out multiple routes up the cliff face.

   Several shipping routes were closed because of the storm.

   Note

   One spelling carries a surprising range of plurals. Most often it means courses traveled, as in climbing routes, bus routes and delivery routes. It also stretches figuratively to approaches (two routes to the same result) and to the entries in a router that tell it where to send data. In histories of imperial China, it names the major provinces from the Later Jin to the Song.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of route.

   The new system routes incoming calls to the first available agent.

   The dispatcher routes ambulances around the blocked intersection.

   Note

   A transitive form: whoever routes always routes something, such as calls, traffic or mail, usually followed by a path phrase with to, through or around. In networking it means sending information through a router. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, and only the sentence tells them apart. In "the routes change," it is a noun. In "she routes the mail," it is a verb.

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