pathfinder
Americannoun
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pathfinders
plural
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a person who finds or makes a path, way, route, etc., especially through a previously unexplored or untraveled wilderness.
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an airplane, or a person dropped from a plane, sent into a target area to illuminate the area for succeeding aircraft.
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a radar beacon beamed into a target area to provide guidance for missiles seeking the target.
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(initial capital letter) an unmanned spacecraft that landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, to obtain climatic and geologic data.
noun
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a person who makes or finds a way, esp through unexplored areas or fields of knowledge
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an aircraft or parachutist who indicates a target area by dropping flares, etc
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a radar device used for navigation or homing onto a target
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of pathfinder
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The first launch will send Blue Origin's lander pathfinder into orbit, where it can remain for several weeks while waiting for the crew.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
Sarah Murphy, Welsh minister for mental health and wellbeing, said women's health pathfinder hubs are expected to come online "in the next few months" building on existing services to "create a tertiary level support".
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
"The fact that it can is a major breakthrough because this is now a pathfinder project for similar projects in Europe."
From Reuters ● Aug. 29, 2022
This mission, called CAPSTONE, is meant to serve as a pathfinder.
From The Verge ● Jun. 28, 2022
Peter went on ahead, our pathfinder as usual, while I led Marlene, with Karli riding up on her, all of us knowing we owed our lives to that extraordinary and wonderful lady.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
But in science, private donors often act as pathfinders for government investment in difficult research.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2022
This was a night for powerful women and pathfinders like Burnett and Close.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2019
Bit by bit, McClellan, Tarter and other historians and lawmakers are highlighting the names and deeds of those early African American pathfinders.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 26, 2018
Many refugees are using apps as pathfinders, devices to show them the best—or least dangerous— way west.
From Time ● Oct. 8, 2015
Some of the pieces dated back to the epoch-making journey of the pathfinders, Lewis and Clark, some to the first white settlers in the region west of the Mississippi.
From The Trail of Conflict by Emilie Baker Loring
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
