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Path vs Route - What's the difference?

path | route |

As nouns the difference between path and route

is that path is a trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians while route is a course or way which is traveled or passed.

As verbs the difference between path and route

is that path is to make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone) while route is to direct or divert along a particular course.

path

English

(wikipedia path)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • The dewy paths of meadows we will tread.
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • A course taken.
  • * 1900 , , , Chapter I,
  • Just before Warwick reached Liberty Point, a young woman came down Front Street from the direction of the market-house. When their paths converged, Warwick kept on down Front Street behind her, it having been already his intention to walk in this direction.
  • (paganism) A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry.
  • A metaphorical course.
  • A method or direction of proceeding.
  • * Bible, Psalms xxv. 10
  • All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.
  • * Gray
  • The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
  • (computing) A human-readable specification for a location within a hierarchical or tree-like structure, such as a file system or as part of a URL
  • (graph theory) A sequence of vertices]] from one vertex to another using the arcs ([[edge, edges). A path does not visit the same vertex more than once (unless it is a closed path , where only the first and the last vertex are the same).
  • (topology) A continuous map f from the unit interval I = [0,1] to a topological space X.
  • Synonyms

    * (1): track, trail; see also

    Derived terms

    * bridle path * cross paths * cycle path * footpath * path of least resistance * pathway

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone).
  • * Drayton
  • pathing young Henry's unadvised ways

    References

    * Oxford English Dictionary [draft revision; June 2005]

    route

    English

    (wikipedia route)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) route, rote (French: route) “road, way, path” (source: route on Etymonline)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A course or way which is traveled or passed.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=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.}}
  • * , volume=101, issue=2, page=83
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The Smallest Cell , passage=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.}}
  • A regular itinerary of stops, or the path followed between these stops, such as for delivery or passenger transportation.
  • A road or path; often specifically a highway.
  • (rfc-sense) (figuratively) One of multiple methods or approaches to doing something.
  • * 2010 , Damien McLoughlin and David A. Aaker, Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives , John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-68975-2, pages 156-7:
  • If such an option is to viable over time, it needs to be protected against competitors. Having patent protection is one route'.

    Derived terms

    * escape route * paper route * scenic route

    Verb

  • To direct or divert along a particular course.
  • All incoming mail was routed through a single office.
  • (Internet) to connect two local area networks, thereby forming an internet
  • To send (information) through a router
  • *
  • Derived terms

    * reroute * router

    See also

    * (Internet) bridge * (Internet) LAN * (Internet) WAN

    Etymology 2

    Verb

    (head)
  • Anagrams

    * ----