pathfinder
Americannoun
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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.
After completing those activities, Orion will separate and wait for SpaceX's Starship pathfinder.
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
Diggins arrived the Beijing Games as a leader of the U.S. team, a pathfinder who had showed other American cross-country skiers that they could compete with the Scandinavians who have long dominated the sport.
From New York Times • Feb. 16, 2022
Basil Stag Hare, camouflage expert and foot fighter, in the lead; Jess Squirrel, champion climber and pathfinder, close behind him.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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.
