highway vs route

highway and route both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
highway	Yes	No	No	No
route	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, route is a hypernym of highway; that is, route is a word with a broader meaning than highway:

Other hypernyms of highway include road.

highway (noun)	route (noun)
a major road for any form of motor transport	an open way (generally public) for travel or transportation
	an established line of travel or access

highway (verb)	route (verb)
	send via a specific route
	divert in a specified direction
	send documents or materials to appropriate destinations