path Hear it!

path¹ Definition

path (pat̸h, pät̸h)

noun

  1. a track or way worn by footsteps; trail
  2. a walk or way for the use of people on foot, as in a park or garden
  3. a line of movement; course taken the path of the meteor
  4. a course or manner of conduct, thought, or procedure

Etymology: ME < OE pæth, akin to Ger pfad, Du pad, prob. early Gmc loanword < Iran (as in Avestan path-) < IE base *pent(h)-, to step, go > find, L pons, bridge

path¹ Related Forms
path′·less adjective
path² Definition

path

  1. pathological
  2. pathology

path Synonyms

path

n.

  1. A trodden way

    pathway, trail, way, track, short cut, footpath, bridle path, crosscut, footway, roadway, walkway, cinder track, trod (British), byway; see also route 1.

  2. A course

    route, beat, beaten path; see way 2.

path Telecom Definition
The physical route of a circuit. See also circuit and virtual path (VP).
path Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • totality: But since the path of totality is so small it is very unlikely that it will cross you home.
  • resistance: The flow through the meter measurement chamber follows the path of least resistance.

Converse of object

  • tread: Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.
  • tow: Bow haulers Men working in gangs to pull boats or barges, from the towing paths.
  • follow: Here in his first solo work he follows a related path, with a tale of the young Leonardo da Vinci.
  • choose: He was not an anomaly in choosing this path, merely a pioneer.
  • cross: You play Tommy Angelo, a 1930's taxi driver in the fictional city of Lost Heaven who crosses paths with the Mafia.
  • beat: Now just wait for the public to beat the path to your door, for you have fixed the mousetrap.

Adjective modifier

  • coastal: The coastal path is easily accessed from these cottages.
  • narrow: Keeping right along the narrow path in trees, we went left, passing a pond on the right.
  • spiritual: Do you really think all spiritual paths lead to the one true God?
  • steep: Access was easy, up a steep path to a colon the, ridge.
  • permissive: A local example of a permissive path is the Wirral Way.
  • beaten: It goes off the beaten path and is the road less traveled.

Noun used with modifier

  • career: What can orange offer you in terms of career path?
  • cycle: There is a growing national network of cycle paths.
  • riverside: Enjoy the wide river views from the excellent riverside path for a few miles.
  • gravel: A gravel path following the line of the walls could disguise a drainage trench.
  • tarmac: At the footpath sign, we crossed the road and went along the tarmac path, which took us through a cemetery.
  • coast: The coast path to Looe heads directly away from the harbor to the east, initially along a narrow lane heading fairly smartly uphill.
path Quotes

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

—Krishnamurti,Jiddu

There, I believed, lay the greatest secrets of the past yet preserved inour world of today.Ihad cometotheturn of the road; and for better or worse I chose the forest path. 319

—Fawcett, Percy Harrison

O L, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo,O L, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

—Bible (Old Testament)

O tell of his might,O sing of his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. His chariots of wrath the deep thunder-clouds form, And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

—Grant, Sir Robert

I would suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.

—Forster, E(dward) M(organ)

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise belongs to God, the Lord of all Being, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate the Master of the Day of Doom. Thee only we serve; toThee alone we pray for succour. Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whomThou hast blessed, not of those against whomThou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray.

—The Koran

Now air is hushed, save where the weak-eyed bat With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing, Or where the beetle winds His small but sullen horn, As oft he rises midst the twilight path, Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum.

—Collins,William

Wir tappen im Labyrinth unsers Lebenswandels und im Dunkel unserer Forschungen umher: helleAugenblicke erleuchten dabei wie Blitze unsernWeg. We grope about in the labyrinth of our life and in the obscurity of our investigations; bright moments illuminate our path like flashes of lightning.

—Schopenhauer, Arthur

More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads.One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

—Allen,Woody pseudonym of  Allen Stewart Konigsberg

Theyare not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream.

—Dowson, Ernest

A jazz performance centers upon the process of creation. The final objective is not only the finished product, but the path and process taken towards it.

—Liebman, David

   A body of work such as Pasteur's is inconceivable in our time: no manwould be given a chance to create a whole science. Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins to pour in.

—Rostand,Jean

And see ye not yon braid, braid road, That lies across the lily leven? That is the path of Wickedness, Though some call it the Road to Heaven.

—Ballads

   The central propositions [of Descartes]†are these: There is a path that leads to the truth so surely that any one who will follow it must needs reach the goal† And there is one guiding rule by which a man mayalways find this path†give unqualified assent to no propositions but those the truth of which is so clear and distinct that they cannot be doubted.

—Huxley,T(homas) H(enry)

The path up and down is one and the same.

—Heraclitus   fl.500

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

—Kennedy,John F(itzgerald)

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura che¤   la diritta via era smarrita. In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood where the straight path was lost.

—Dante Alighieri originally Durante

Throw away thy rod, Throw away thy wrath: O my God, Take the gentle path.

—Herbert, George

You would not find out the boundaries of the soul, even by travelling along every path: so deepa measure doesit have.

—Heraclitus   fl.500

Virtue's his path; but sometimes 'tis too narrow For his vast soul; and then he starts out wide, And bounds into a vice.

—Dryden,John

One evening,Iwas walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjordöthe sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red.I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. Ipainted this picture, paintedthe cloudsas actual blood. The colour shrieked. This becameThe Scream.

—Munch, Edvard