DETOURING Synonyms: 37 Similar and Opposite Words

detouring

verb

present participle of detour

as in bypassing

to avoid by going around we had to detour the construction zone in order to get to the stadium

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in deviating

to change one's course or direction we had to detour for a few miles around the section of highway under construction

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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 detouring Westbound lanes of Interstate 80 were closed Sunday near Colfax, with traffic detouring through Secret Town, following a diesel spill from a semi-tanker. — Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 24 May 2026 All eastbound trips near the intersection were detouring as delays were expected, and students at Golden Valley and Bowman high schools were moved to different pick-up points. — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026 Brown apologized for detouring off-topic again. — Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2026 Both Ball and Norman danced around the question, detouring to talk about everything from the First Amendment, partnerships among local law enforcement agencies, chronic staffing issues, possession of body cameras and protesters' right to record and report after an incident. — Claudia Levens, jsonline.com, 19 Feb. 2026 No detouring from the course that has got them to this point. — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 19 Jan. 2026 For three months, the party scouted out a path across the desert, frequently detouring around impassable canyons and mountains. — Mike Bezemek, Outside, 29 Oct. 2025 In Expedia's report, some popular destinations include detouring from Brescia, Italy, to Milan, and from Santa Barbara, California, to Los Angeles. — Celia Fernandez, CNBC, 29 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for detouring

Verb

Giulia eventually entered through the back door, inadvertently bypassing the cameras Conor had set up to capture her reaction.

— Alexandra Macon, Vogue, 12 Oct. 2026
The developer had planned to build a 27-story tower with 111 luxury condos, but earlier this year added workforce housing under the Live Local Act, effectively bypassing local density and height restrictions.

— Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of bypassing

Verb

The complication shows the moon phases for both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, with a 135-tooth driving wheel that drastically enhances accuracy, deviating by just one day every 122 years.

— Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 26 Sep. 2026
But maybe a line between North and South Carolina, between Tennessee and Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi then deviating south to divide Louisiana and Arkansas.

— Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 7 Sep. 2026

Definition of deviating

Verb

Her style is pithy and blunt, avoiding the ornate sentence structure of classical German.

— Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
However early the experiment might be, the launch is a milestone for an emerging technology that has the potential to help meet AI’s growing demand for compute while avoiding the constraints on resources like power, water, and land on Earth.

— Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2026

Definition of avoiding

Verb

The Dome, with its spatial sound and vibrations, seemed to help create the conditions for turning my attention inward.

— Jessica Sulima, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Oct. 2026
If this trajectory continues, those proportions will only grow, with red states turning maximally red and blue states maximally blue.

— Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2026

Definition of turning

Verb

The then-head of the bank also was arrested for allegedly circumventing procedures in releasing the money to the charity.

— ABC News, ABC News, 7 Oct. 2026
Fragmentation has allowed many powerful figures to get their message across by circumventing traditional media outlets whose questions many CEOs and politicians don’t want to answer.

— Max Tani, semafor.com, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of circumventing

Verb

Some are veering to the right by mirroring GOP positions, like transgender exclusion from school sports.

— Dorian Rhea Debussy, The Conversation, 12 Oct. 2026
The hurricane appeared to be veering away from the dense refining region in southern Louisiana near New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

— Spencer Kimball, CNBC, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of veering

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detoured

detouring

detours

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Style

“Detouring.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detouring. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of detouring

verb

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