ROUTES Synonyms: 123 Similar and Opposite Words

routes 1 of 2

noun

plural of route

as in roads

a passage cleared for public vehicular travel take Route 190 for six miles, then get off

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in paths

an established course for traveling from one place to another we're going to get stuck in traffic if we take the usual route

Synonyms & Similar Words

as in ways

the direction along which something or someone moves hurricanes generally take a northerly route up the Atlantic seaboard

Synonyms & Similar Words

routes

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of route

as in guides

to point out the way for (someone) especially from a position in front the guide routed us smoothly through the jungle

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of routes

Noun

One of the first to try on that hat was the agency's Perseverance rover on Mars, which used machine learning to plan and complete its first drive on the Red Planet using routes mapped out by generative AI in December 2025. — Josh Dinner, Space.com, 16 Oct. 2026 Throughout the war, Russia has repeatedly bombarded Ukraine’s Black Sea and Danube river ports, leaving Kyiv increasingly reliant on alternative routes to get its grain exports to markets in Africa and the Middle East. — ABC News, 16 Oct. 2026 Freeman can make traditional plays on underneath routes, but is also capable of being a vertical threat. — Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Oct. 2026 This nearly 10-foot-high work depicts Mount Tai, one of China’s Five Great Mountains, and leads the viewer’s eye along the pilgrimage routes to the mountain’s summit. — Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 16 Oct. 2026 Gulf states don’t have much of a choice other than to invest in different routes and use whichever works best. — semafor.com, 16 Oct. 2026 While drivers are being urged to use alternate routes, some lanes on the Interstate 280 extension will be closed for road work. — Tim Fang, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026 JetBlue is betting big on Fort Lauderdale, and not only for routes. — Vinod Sreeharsha, Miami Herald, 16 Oct. 2026 The warning came amid deadly missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent days and growing threats to global shipping routes and critical Middle East infrastructure in the run-up. — Emma Bussey, FOXNews.com, 15 Oct. 2026

Verb

The mill is mated to an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox which routes power to all four wheels, of course. — Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 14 Oct. 2026 The grid constantly senses where demand is rising and routes power to meet it, drawing on every point in the network to decide or predict where energy should go to optimize supply, cost efficiency and customer delivery. — Thomas Zawacki, Forbes.com, 23 Sep. 2026 The organization collects footwear and clothing donations and routes them toward reuse channels. — Fairchild Studio, Footwear News, 16 Sep. 2026 That means if Robinhood routes bets on Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen to throw for at least 300 passing yards through OG’s exchange, the brokerage app wouldn’t be taking anything away from Rothera, which has never offered that type of wager. — Dan Bernstein, Sportico.com, 10 Sep. 2026 To establish this metric, the system processes daily historical records from the US Geological Survey’s stream gage network alongside Dayflow, an Oak Ridge dataset that routes runoff across American river channels. — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 6 Sep. 2026 The lymphatic system collects that fluid from your tissues and routes it through a network of vessels, nodes and organs running parallel to the circulatory system throughout nearly the entire body, per StatPearls. — Allison Palmer, Charlotte Observer, 29 June 2026 Charter routes much of the traffic through its Wi-Fi networks. — Kelcee Griffis, Fortune, 27 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for routes

Noun

Most mountain roads should remain wet, but slick conditions are possible above 9,000 feet, especially after dark.

— Joe Ruch, CBS News, 13 Oct. 2026
Critics also worried that an unplanned surge in housing could strain schools, roads and other infrastructure.

— Jennifer Ludden, NPR, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of roads

Noun

Imagine that two planets orbit a star on very similar paths, but one (call it Planet 1) is just barely closer to the star than the other (Planet 2).

— Phil Plait, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2026
In contrast, a learner that assumes the world has shape, persistent objects, agents with goals, causes that precede effects and space with paths through it only needs enough data to locate things within that structure.

— Charles Yeomans, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of paths

Noun

By definition, tiny houses pretty much always involve working around constraints, but some designers have found clever ways of making a small home feel like a larger one.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 17 Oct. 2026
Ioannidis argues that, in some ways, claims of scientific progress are a public relations game.

— Mary Randolph, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of ways

Verb

The Black Parade, a marching band, guides him into the afterlife.

— Lina Abascal, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
Our capital improvement plan guides us with the infrastructure for traffic improvements, drainage/stormwater maintenance and other facilities to be maintained within the town.

— Susan Starkey, Sun Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of guides

Noun

The two highways are major entry points to the center of Kansas City and downtown.

— Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 14 Oct. 2026
For residents like Smith, the idea of transforming space above one of Atlanta's busiest highways offers a glimpse of what downtown could become.

— Jamal Goss, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of highways

Noun

The White House decision has heightened fears that Ukraine could be left exposed to Moscow's escalating attacks as winter approaches.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 18 Oct. 2026
Over the four decades since, communities have taken different approaches to bring CPR into the classroom.

— Meng Yang, Time, 18 Oct. 2026

Definition of approaches

Noun

What’s more, dopamine pathways that were traditionally thought to govern pleasure and punishment also seem to be highly involved in prediction.

— Maia Szalavitz, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Young people need greater exposure, clearer pathways, accessible training and support from the people who influence their career decisions.

— Fairchild Studio, Footwear News, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of pathways

Verb

Camden generally steers private clients away from designing for stays longer than 30 days, though some have asked his firm to plan for a year or more.

— Megan Buerger, Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2026
But since these girls don’t have anything that looks like conventional adulthood waiting for them, the film wisely steers them away from maturity and toward a kind of spiritual liberation.

— Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of steers

Browse Nearby Words

routed (out)

routes

routeway

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Style

“Routes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/routes. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of routes

noun

verb

Example Sentences

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