PATH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does path mean? 

• PATH (noun)
  The noun PATH has 4 senses:

1. a course of conduct

2. a way especially designed for a particular use

3. an established line of travel or access

4. a line or route along which something travels or moves

  Familiarity information: PATH used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A course of conduct

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

path; way; way of life

Context example:

genius usually follows a revolutionary path

Hypernyms ("path" is a kind of...):

course; course of action (a mode of action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "path"):

primrose path (a life of ease and pleasure)

straight and narrow; strait and narrow (the way of proper and honest behavior)

hadith; Sunna; Sunnah ((Islam) the way of life prescribed as normative for Muslims on the basis of the teachings and practices of Muhammad and interpretations of the Koran)

warpath (a course leading to warfare or battle)

ambages ((archaic) roundabout or mysterious ways of action)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A way especially designed for a particular use

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("path" is a kind of...):

way (any artifact consisting of a road or path affording passage from one place to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "path"):

bridle path; bridle road (a path suitable for riding or leading horses (but not for cars))

crossing; crossover; crosswalk (a path (often marked) where something (as a street or railroad) can be crossed to get from one side to the other)

lane (a well-defined track or path; for e.g. swimmers or lines of traffic)

footpath; pathway (a trodden path)

towing path; towpath (a path along a canal or river used by animals towing boats)

paseo; walk; walkway (a path set aside for walking)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An established line of travel or access

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

itinerary; path; route

Hypernyms ("path" is a kind of...):

line (a spatial location defined by a real or imaginary unidimensional extent)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "path"):

paper round; paper route (the route taken when delivering newspapers every day)

line of march (the route along which a column advances)

beeline (the most direct route)

circuit (an established itinerary of venues or events that a particular group of people travel to)

crosscut (a diagonal path)

supply line; supply route (a route over which supplies can be delivered)

line of fire (the path of a missile discharged from a firearm)

flyway; migration route (the geographic route along which birds customarily migrate)

fairway (the usual course taken by vessels through a harbor or coastal waters)

direction; way (a line leading to a place or point)

trade route (a route followed by traders (usually in caravans))

celestial orbit; orbit (the (usually elliptical) path described by one celestial body in its revolution about another)

feeder line (a branching path off of a main transportation line (especially an airline))

main line (the principal route of a transportation system)

data track; track ((computer science) one of the circular magnetic paths on a magnetic disk that serve as a guide for writing and reading data)

air lane; airway; flight path; skyway (a designated route followed by airplanes in flying from one airport to another)

approach pattern; pattern; traffic pattern (the path that is prescribed for an airplane that is preparing to land at an airport)

flight path (the path of a rocket or projectile or aircraft through the air)

beat; round (a regular route for a sentry or policeman)

bus route (the route regularly followed by a passenger bus)

line of flight (the path along which a freely moving object travels through the air)

electron orbit; orbit (the path of an electron around the nucleus of an atom)

Instance hyponyms:

Northwest Passage (a water route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean along the northern coast of North America; Europeans since the 16th century had searched for a short route to the Far East before it was successfully traversed by Roald Amundsen (1903-1906))

Sense 4

Meaning:

A line or route along which something travels or moves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

course; path; track

Context example:

the course of the river

Hypernyms ("path" is a kind of...):

line (a spatial location defined by a real or imaginary unidimensional extent)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "path"):

collision course (a course of a moving object that will lead to a collision if it continues unchanged)

inside track (the inner side of a curved racecourse)

round (the course along which communications spread)

steps (the course along which a person has walked or is walking in)

belt; swath (a path or strip (as cut by one course of mowing))

trail (a track or mark left by something that has passed)

 Context examples 

A coded value specifying the physiological path or method of introducing the substance into or onto the subject.

(Defined Substance Administration Route Of Administration Code, NCI Thesaurus)

Major staggered to his feet, but the blood spouting from his throat reddened the snow in a widening path.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He swaggered up a path as if the place belonged to him, and we heard his loud, confident peal at the bell.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This month you’ll love the new paths that open for you.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I walked along the path towards the house, glancing at the windows, and fearing at every step to see Mr. Murdstone or Miss Murdstone lowering out of one of them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

More than one path can remove the sulfur and nitrogen groups of serine to create pyruvate.

(Catabolic Pathways for Alanine, Glycine, Serine, Cysteine, Tryptophan, and Threonine, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The surgery creates a new path for blood to flow to the heart.

(Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

Through the BTK protein and PKC Mast cells are able to degranulate, through the PKC and MAPK paths the cells are able to alter cytokine expression and arachidonic acid release.

(Fc Epsilon Receptor I Signaling Pathway BioCarta, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The wall carries rocks, mud, and rubble and can sweep away most things in its path.

(Floods, Federal Emergency Management Agency)

The path lay still behind me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)