Is there a word for "part of a route"?


I'm building a software application where I calculate which way to take between two different places. I call the complete path for a Route (correct?). But what do I call each part of the route?


The user wants to go from A to D, but to reach D the user must take the path A -> B -> C -> D.


What is part A->B called?



Answer



In computer science, I've heard this called a hop or a segment. In more general English usage, I think the term leg would be most appropriate. As for the whole sequence, route seems fine.


As Kristopher points out, edge is a technical term for what you're describing in graph theory, but an average user would have no idea what that meant. Only use this term if you're explicitly using the language of graph theory.


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