pathfinder

[path-fahyn-der, pahth‐]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR pathfinder ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who finds or makes a path, way, route, etc., especially through a previously unexplored or untraveled wilderness.

an airplane, or a person dropped from a plane, sent into a target area to illuminate the area for succeeding aircraft.

a radar beacon beamed into a target area to provide guidance for missiles seeking the target.

(initial capital letter) an unmanned spacecraft that landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, to obtain climatic and geologic data.

Origin of pathfinder

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40; path + finder

Related formspath·find·ing, noun, adjective

Pathfinder, The

noun

a historical novel (1840) by James Fenimore Cooper.

Compare Leather-Stocking Tales.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for pathfinder

wanderer, mentor, model, counselor, teacher, pilot, pilgrim, founder, settler, colonist, immigrant, scout, explorer, guide, developer, squatter, leader, innovator, pathfinder, homesteader

Examples from the Web for pathfinder

Contemporary Examples of pathfinder

Eventually, he packed up his Nissan Pathfinder and drove back to Iowa.
Drug Dealers to the Stars
Christine Pelisek
October 20, 2010

Historical Examples of pathfinder

So you see, to begin with, our pathfinder tells us the enemy ahead are three in number.
Pathfinder
Alan Douglas
Besides this, they must read the messages left occasionally by their pathfinder.
Pathfinder
Alan Douglas
It had been arranged that Elmer was to act as pathfinder and tracker.
Pathfinder
Alan Douglas
Pathfinder showed off handsomely that day before the ladies.
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
He was "the Pathfinder," and second only to Daniel Boone as a frontier hero.
Abraham Lincoln
William Eleroy Curtis

British Dictionary definitions for pathfinder

pathfinder

noun

a person who makes or finds a way, esp through unexplored areas or fields of knowledge

an aircraft or parachutist who indicates a target area by dropping flares, etc

a radar device used for navigation or homing onto a target

Derived Formspathfinding, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pathfinder

1839 (Cooper), from path + finder.

pathfinder in Medicine

pathfinder

[păth′fīn′dər]

n.

A filiform bougie for introduction through a narrow stricture as a guide for the passage of a larger instrument.