[wang_li]

This isn't an English language question. The technology in question doesn't guarantee a singular route or a path to a destination. Subsequent packets from an originating host to a destination host can follow different paths. Even during an activity such as a traceroute. A packet that reached its TTL at what is presented as hop 12 didn't necessarily traverse previous hops displayed by traceroute.

[nullindividual]

You'll learn pedantry gets tiring when you get older. How traceroute is understood and displayed to the end user constitutes a route. If you have an issue with how the developers of traceroute framed it, that's on you.

[lostemptations5]

OP was the pedant in this case, unfortunately (for you).