Route Meaning
/ɹuːt/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA course or way which is traveled or passed.
nounA regular itinerary of stops, or the path followed between these stops, such as for delivery or passenger transportation.
Sentence Examples
The party, therefore, had to take another route.
Take the shortest route to Paris.
Which is the best route to take?
CEFR Practice Quiz
The delivery van had a specific ____ to every house on the street each day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The delivery driver chose the fastest ____ to avoid the morning traffic congestion.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English route, from Old French route, from Latin rupta [via] (literally “a path made by force”). Compare Modern French route. See routine. Further via Latin ruptus related with bankrupt.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted."
— 2013 March 26, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, page 83:
"If such an option is to viable over time, it needs to be protected against competitors. Having patent protection is one route. […] Another route is to have a programmatic investment strategy […]. Rolex has taken this route […]"
— 2010, Damien McLoughlin, David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, pages 156–7:
"The Chinese, ever since the first century of our era, have called the countries which we to-day name Kashgar and Sungaria, "routes." They referred them to their relative position on the two sides of the Tian-Shan, and called our Sungaria, Pe-lu, " northern route," and our Kashgar, Nan-lu, " southern route." The Turks gave other names to these countries; they called the northern route besh-balik, "the five cities," Pentapolis; the southern route was alti-shehr, " the six cities," Hexapolis."
— 1908, Henry Smith Williams, The Historians' History of the World:
"Under the director were eight education promotion officials (quanxue yuan), each installed in a “route”(lu,corresponding to the policing ward)."
— 2005, Huaiyin Li, Village Governance In North China: Huailu County, 1875-1936, →ISBN:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The delivery van had a specific ____ to every house on the street each day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The delivery driver chose the fastest ____ to avoid the morning traffic congestion.