detour
/ˈdiː.tɔː(ɹ)/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
obsolete/dɪˈtʊə/
detour noun: a diversion or deviation from one's original route.
Noun
detour (plural detours)
- A diversion or deviation from one's original route.
- On the third day I made a detour westward to avoid the country of the Band-lu, as I did not care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
- Of course the Johnston swings around to engage the entire flotilla, and, despite taking several more hits, Johnston successfully forces away the first two ships, which leads to the entire squadron taking a detour to avoid the single pugnacious ship.2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 29:50 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022
- A temporary alternative route available to motorists away from the usual route due to a closure for repairs, dealing with an accident, or some event rendering the usual route unusable.
Verb
detour (third-person singular simple present detours, present participle detouring, simple past and past participle detoured)
- To make a detour.
- Petrelis detoured away from southern activities to visit Chicago and help draw attention to lesbian, gay and AIDS issues during the Illinois primary March 16.1988 April 9, Elizabeth Pincus, “Freedom Ride Supports Southern Les/Gay Visibility”, in Gay Community News, page 3
- To direct or send on a detour.
Proper noun capitalized: Detour
Detour
detour meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
detour in Tamil
- சுற்றுவழி, மாற்றுவழி
detour in Urdu
- لمبا راستہ, پھیر دار
detour in Bengali
- ঘোরানো পথ, বিকল্প পথ
detour in Malayalam
- roundabout route, diversion, indirect route
- വഴിമാറിപ്പോകൽ, തിരിവ്, വളഞ്ഞവഴി, ചുറ്റിവളഞ്ഞുള്ള വഴി, പ്രകൃതഭ്രംശം, വ്യതിയാനം
More languagesFewer languages
- detour in Kannada
- ಬಳಸುದಾರಿ, ಸುತ್ತುದಾರಿ
- detour in Persian
- بیراهه birâhe, مسیر انحرافی masir-e enherâfi
Examples of detour in a sentence
- The road took a brief detour around the large rock formation, then went straight on.
- Clearance on these freeway overpasses is limited, so big trucks must detour.
- The detour meant that we had to go on a twenty-mile Cook's tour to get home.
Forms of detour
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | detours |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | detours |
| present participle | detouring |
| past participle | detoured |
| past | detoured |
Origin of detour
Borrowed from French détour, from détourner (“turn away”).
Words formed from detour
Words that rhyme with detour
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about detour
- What does detour mean?
- Detour means a diversion or deviation from one's original route.
- What is detour in Tamil?
- Detour in Tamil is சுற்றுவழி, மாற்றுவழி. See Detour meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is detour?
- Detour can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce detour?
- Detour is pronounced /ˈdiː.tɔː(ɹ)/.
- What is the plural of detour?
- The plural of detour is detours.
Words near detour in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: detour (page history and authors); Detour (page history and authors); detour (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detour (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Detour (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detour (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); detour (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-detour.wav.
Cite this entry: “detour.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/detour. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.