path

Pluralpaths

1. 1
   walking tracknouncountable

   A trail or track made for, or worn by, people traveling on foot.

   The narrow path wound between the fields toward the river.

   Years of foot traffic had worn a path across the meadow.

   UsageYou walk along a path or follow it, and keep to the path.

   Similartrail, track, walkway

   Note

   It is a way made by feet as much as for them, so it belongs with grass, dew and meadows, as in Dryden's 'the dewy paths of meadows we will tread.' One treads, follows or strikes into a path, as Joseph C. Lincoln's narrator does among the pines. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The quoted line occurs in Dryden’s verse. gutenberg.org
   • Joseph C. Lincoln’s narrator strikes into a path among young pines. en.wiktionary.org
2. 2
   life journeynouncountable

   A course of action, conduct, or development, especially one followed through life or chosen in order to reach a goal.

   Her path through grief led eventually to a kind of peace.

   After years of doubt, he felt his career was finally on the right path.

   UsageOften on the right path, a career path, or choose a path.

   Similarcourse, road, track, route, way

   Note

   Life and work borrow the walker's way. Tennyson in In Memoriam (1850) sets 'my paths' in familiar fields against a friend's in 'undiscover'd lands'. Career writing now speaks of a library science path as one option among others. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Tennyson wrote In Memoriam for a friend. en.wikipedia.org
   • In Memoriam was first published in 1850; its first-edition title page bears that year. archive.org
   • The poem contrasts the speaker’s paths in familiar fields with the addressed friend’s paths in undiscovered lands, using the quoted wording. archive.org
3. 3
   line of travelnouncountable

   The route that someone or something follows in moving from one place to another.

   The storm's path took it straight toward the coast.

   Scientists mapped the comet's path as it swung close to the sun.

   UsageCommon in in the path of a storm, and our paths crossed, meaning we met by chance.

   Similarroute, course, trajectory, track

   Note

   Here the way belongs to whatever moves along it, and it needs no ground at all: the path of a meteor, a caravan, a storm. Because each moving thing traces its own, two of them can meet, and the plural takes verbs of meeting. In Charles W. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars (1900), two walkers' paths converge on Front Street. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Charles W. Chesnutt wrote The House Behind the Cedars, first published in 1900. chesnuttarchive.org
   • The novel describes two walkers' paths converging on Front Street. chesnuttarchive.org
4. 4
   file locationnouncountable

   A human-readable string that specifies a location within a hierarchical structure, such as a file system or a URL.

   The error message showed the full path to the missing configuration file.

   Each URL path points to a specific page on the website.

   Note

   In computing the route is spelled out as text. Each level of a hierarchy is named in turn, with a separator between levels, down to the file or page wanted. A network path such as \\Marketing\Files opens with a double backslash before the machine's name. A full path lists every level from the top. Its companion verb is navigating a directory tree. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • A computing path represents a location as text. learn.microsoft.com
   • Path components are separated by separator characters. learn.microsoft.com
   • The example is a UNC network path, whose machine name follows two backslashes. learn.microsoft.com
   • A full path specifies the location from the root downward. ibm.com
5. 5
   network mathsnouncountable

   A sequence of vertices joined by edges in which no vertex repeats, unless the route is closed and shares only its first and last vertex.

   The algorithm searches for the shortest path between two nodes in the network.

   A closed path in the graph forms a cycle that returns to its starting vertex.

   Note

   Graph theory gives the word a strict rule: no vertex may be visited twice. The one exception is a closed path, which returns to where it began and shares only its first and last vertex. Shortest-path searches through networks rest on this sense. Keep it apart from the topologist's path, which is a continuous map, not a list of vertices. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Under the stated graph-theory convention, a path has no repeated vertices. edshare.gcu.ac.uk
   • A closed path repeats only its initial vertex as its final vertex. people.math.binghamton.edu
   • Shortest-path searches use graph-theoretic paths through networks. en.wikipedia.org
   • A topological path is a continuous map. math.mit.edu

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