route
/ɹuːt/noun, verb
route is spelled R-O-U-T-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 47 times per million words in written English, the 2,153rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “rout vs route” about 390 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, route means “A course or way which is traveled or passed” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of route is routes.
How many letters and syllables are in route?
| Letters | 5: R-O-U-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 47 times per million words; the 2,153rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is route?
Route appears 47 times per million words in written English, the 2,153rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce route?
- UK /ɹuːt/
- British /ɹʉwt/
- Australia /ɹʉːt/
Route has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-route-2.ogg, En-us-route.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with route
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: root, rute (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with route?
6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as route from its last stressed vowel (/ut/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: outer, outre.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of route
- routes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- routeing participle, present
- routing participle, present
- routed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does route mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A course or way which is traveled or passed.
The route was used so much that it formed a rut.
- 2
A regular itinerary of stops, or the path followed between these stops, such as for delivery or passenger transportation.
We live near the bus route.
- 3
A road or path; often specifically a highway.
Follow Route 49 out of town.
- 4
One of multiple methods or approaches to doing something.
- 5
One of the major provinces of imperial China from the Later Jin to the Song, corresponding to the Tang and early Yuan circuits.
- 6
A specific entry in a router that tells the router how to transmit the data it receives.
- 7
A race longer than one mile.
- 8
A path that has been secured by a railway signalling system for the passage of a train and locked to prevent any conflicting train movements from taking place.
verb
- 1
To direct or divert along a particular course.
All incoming mail was routed through a single office.
- 2
to connect two local area networks, thereby forming an internet.
- 3
To send (information) through a router.
- 4
Eye dialect spelling of root.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate route?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of route: Rte., rt.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Route in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | route, chemin, itinéraire |
| German | Route, Weg, Pfad, Wegstrecke , Straße |
| Portuguese | rota, percurso, caminho, itinerário , jeito , rotear |
| Spanish | ruta, itinerario , enrutar, encaminar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does route come from?
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. Unrelated to road.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).