Meaning & use
route
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Meanings
nouncountable
The roads or paths you follow to get from one place to another.
Grammar: Countable: take a route, a route to the airport.
Patterns
- a route to somewhere
- the route from A to B
We took the scenic route along the coast.
Which route is quicker to the station?
The bus route was changed because of roadworks.
nouncountable
A way of achieving something or reaching a goal.
Grammar: Often followed by to: a route to success.
Patterns
- a route to something
- the route into something
Training is a good route to a better job.
Many people see college as the route into a career in science.
Hard work was her route to success.
verbtransitive
To send something or someone along a particular path or to a certain place.
Grammar: Takes an object, often with through or to: route calls through the office.
Patterns
- route something through somewhere
- route something to someone
The airline routed us through Chicago.
Calls are routed to the next available agent.
Traffic was routed around the accident.
Word forms
| plural | routes |
|---|---|
| third person singular | routes |
| past tense | routed |
| -ing form | routing |
Common combinations
- an escape route
- The map showed an escape route in case of fire.
- take a route
- I take a different route home on Fridays.
- a bus route
- The new bus route links the suburbs to downtown.
- en route
- We had lunch en route to the coast.
- the shortest route
- The app suggests the shortest route to the museum.
- a route to
- Volunteering can be a route to full-time work.
Synonyms and how they differ
- path
- Path is often a narrow track you walk on, while route covers the whole planned way, including roads.
- course
- Course suggests the direction something follows, such as a ship or a river, and is less about choosing roads.
- way
- Way is the everyday word and can be vague, while route usually names a specific, planned journey.
- itinerary
- An itinerary is a plan with the places and times of a trip, not the path itself.
Word family
Commonly confused: route or root? route or rout?
route vs root
Root is the underground part of a plant, and in British English route and root sound different; in American English route can also rhyme with out in some contexts like paper route.
route vs rout
A rout is a crushing defeat, and as a verb means to defeat completely.
Practice
The bridge is closed, so the buses are being _____ through the old town.
Choose one answer.
Routed means directed along a particular path. Rooted means fixed in place like a plant, which does not describe moving traffic.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “route”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.