DETOURS Synonyms: 48 Similar and Opposite Words

detours 1 of 2

noun

plural of detour

as in deviations

a turning away from a course or standard we'll regard this relapse as just a brief detour on your road to recovery from substance abuse

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

adherences

detours

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of detour

as in bypasses

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 deviates

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 detours

Noun

Any disruption to the strait would force vessels on costly dayslong detours. —

Mithil Aggarwal, NBC news, 16 May 2026 Looking back across six decades of Cannes triumphs, scandals, detours and reinventions, Schlöndorff sounds surprisingly unburdened by it all. —

Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026 However, these seemingly gaudy detours end up retrofitted to Jude’s larger point about power structures in modern Europe as well, when the camera eventually pulls back to focus on specifics of the production. —

Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire, 16 May 2026 Somali pirates are profiting from the war in Iran as commercial ships, bypassing conflict routes through lengthy detours around Africa, sail into their strike zone. —

Nimi Princewill, CNN Money, 15 May 2026 Oftentimes, the consequence waiting on deck was Woolery, a one-two punch that made detours around Grant a dangerous gamble. —

Ira Gorawara, New York Times, 15 May 2026 Project Director John Myler encouraged drivers to plan ahead and study the detours. —

John Shumway, CBS News, 14 May 2026 During this year’s Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, transportation officials closed local roads around the stadium, forcing drivers and pedestrians to take major detours, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. —

Camila Pedrosa, Sacbee.com, 13 May 2026 For Giannulli, who has nearly 2 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 1 million on Instagram, the path to launch took five years and a few detours. —

James Manso, Footwear News, 12 May 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for detours

Noun

The only deviations from the hue can be found on the steel screws on the bezel, the titanium caseback and crown chip, and the white accents on the dial.

— Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 9 May 2026
The scale and frequency of the deviations align more naturally with magnetic restructuring in the solar wind than with extreme plasma density shifts.

— Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 3 May 2026