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
- pathfinding noun
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.
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
ESA has long planned its own gravitational-wave observatory, LISA, and has already flown a successful pathfinder.
From Scientific American • Feb. 24, 2022
Mr. Cerruti was a pathfinder in other ways.
From New York Times • Feb. 9, 2022
I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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.
