path

 
Pronunciation: /pɑːθ/

noun (plural paths /pɑːðz/)

  • a way or track laid down for walking or made by continual treading: the path continues alongside the river for half a mile
  • the course or direction in which a person or thing is moving: the missile traced a fiery path in the sky
  • a course of action or way of achieving something: a chosen career path a vegetarian diet could be the path to a longer life
  • a schedule available for allocation to an individual railway train over a given route.
  • Computing a definition of the order in which an operating system or program searches for a file or executable program.

verb

[no object] (usually as noun pathing)
  • (chiefly in computing and railway contexts) allocate a path.

Phrases

the path of least resistance

see resistance.

Derivatives

pathless

adjective

Origin:

Old English pæth, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch pad, German Pfad, of unknown ultimate origin