pioneering

1. 1
   adjective

   Marking the first attempt at something not done before, or developing and using new methods and techniques.

   Their pioneering research into vaccines saved countless lives.

   The company took a pioneering approach to storing clean energy.

   Similargroundbreaking, innovative, trailblazing, revolutionary, original

   Oppositeconventional, derivative

   Note

   Mostly found before a noun, in phrases like pioneering efforts, pioneering research and pioneering work. It is treated as an absolute quality: something either broke new ground or it did not. For that reason the word resists "more" and "very", and a writer who wants degree reaches for innovative instead.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of pioneer.

   The team is pioneering techniques that could reshape how doctors treat cancer.

   By pioneering remote surgery, the hospital reached patients in distant mountain villages.

   Note

   Because pioneer is a transitive verb, this form takes its object directly: a team is pioneering techniques, and a hospital reaches patients by pioneering remote surgery. The same spelling also serves as the adjective meaning "groundbreaking", so a phrase like pioneering techniques can be read two ways. If the noun names what someone is developing, the word is the verb. If it describes the techniques as new, it is the adjective.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act or work of being the first to explore, develop, or try something new.

   The region owes much of its growth to decades of pioneering by early settlers.

   Scientific pioneering often demands both courage and patience.

   Similarexploration, innovation

4. 4
   noununcountable

   A scoutcraft skill that involves constructing structures such as bridges and towers from staves joined with knots.

   The troop spent the weekend on pioneering, lashing staves into a watchtower.

   Good pioneering depends on choosing the right knots for each joint.

   Note

   Scouting's name for a hands-on craft: lashing staves with rope and knots until they bear weight as a bridge, tower or gateway. It is a mass noun, so a troop does pioneering, never "a pioneering." Watch for ambiguity, since the "groundbreaking" adjective shares the spelling. On a camp program, a pioneering session means rope and timber, not innovation.

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