routine
/ɹuˈtin/noun, adjective
routine is spelled R-O-U-T-I-N-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, routine means “A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of routine is routines.
How many letters and syllables are in routine?
| Letters | 7: R-O-U-T-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 23 times per million words; the 3,814th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is routine?
Routine appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th 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 routine?
- UK /ɹuːˈtiːn/
- US /ɹuˈtin/
Routine has 2 syllables (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-routine.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with routine?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as routine from its last stressed vowel (/in/):
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 routine
- routines plural
- more routine comparative
- most routine superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does routine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.
- 2
A set of normal procedures, often performed mechanically.
Connie was completely robotic and emotionless by age 12; her entire life had become one big routine.
- 3
A set piece of an entertainer's act.
stand-up comedy routine
- 4
A performance, execution of gymnastics for one of the apparatus.
- 5
A set of instructions designed to perform a specific task; a subroutine.
adjective
- 1
According to established procedure.
- 2
Regular; habitual.
- 3
Ordinary with nothing to distinguish it from all the others.
- 4
Boringly predictable, monotonous, and unchanging
I found the work pretty routine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Routine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | routine , numéro , procédural , routinier , quelconque |
| German | Routine , routinemäßig , routiniert, gewohnheitsmäßig, üblich |
| Portuguese | rotina , rotineiro , de rotina |
| Spanish | rutina , rutinario , de rutina |
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 routine come from?
Unadapted borrowing from French routine. By surface analysis, route + -ine. Further from Latin rupta via. Compare typologically travel << Latin tripālium, whence also travail, note the inverse semantic vector from a subjective state (toil) to an objective action (journey). Also compare Czech běžný (< běžet), Russian обихо́д (obixód), обихо́дный (obixódnyj) (akin to ходи́ть (xodítʹ)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).