pathfinder
[path-fahyn-der, pahth‐]
- 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.
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Origin of pathfinder
Pathfinder, The
- a historical novel (1840) by James Fenimore Cooper.
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Compare Leather-Stocking Tales.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for pathfinder
wanderer, mentor, model, counselor, teacher, pilot, pilgrim, founder, settler, colonist, immigrant, scout, explorer, guide, developer, squatter, leader, innovator, pathfinder, homesteaderExamples from the Web for pathfinder
Contemporary Examples of pathfinder
Eventually, he packed up his Nissan Pathfinder and drove back to Iowa.
Historical Examples of pathfinder
It had been arranged that Elmer was to act as pathfinder and tracker.
PathfinderAlan Douglas
So you see, to begin with, our pathfinder tells us the enemy ahead are three in number.
PathfinderAlan Douglas
Besides this, they must read the messages left occasionally by their pathfinder.
PathfinderAlan Douglas
Pathfinder showed off handsomely that day before the ladies.
Fenimore Cooper's Literary OffencesMark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
He was "the Pathfinder," and second only to Daniel Boone as a frontier hero.
Abraham LincolnWilliam Eleroy Curtis
pathfinder
- 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
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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
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
pathfinder
(păth′fīn′dər)- A filiform bougie for introduction through a narrow stricture as a guide for the passage of a larger instrument.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.