path

From Middle English path, peth, from Old English pæþ (“path, track”), from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”) (compare West Frisian paad, Dutch pad, German Pfad), Ancient Greek πατέω (patéō) / πάτος (pátos), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬥𐬙𐬀‎ (panta, “way”), 𐬞𐬀𐬚𐬀‎ (paθa, genitive), Old Persian [script needed] (pathi-)), from Proto-Iranian *pántaHh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs (compare Sanskrit पथिन् (páthin)), from Proto-Indo-European *póntoh₁s, from *pent- (“path”) (compare English find).

• IPA^(key): /pɑːθ/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [pʰɑːθ]
  • (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): [pʰäːθ~pʰɐːθ]
• IPA^(key): /pæθ/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [pʰæθ~pʰɛəθ~pʰeəθ]
  • (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): [pʰaθ~pʰæθ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːθ, -æθ

path (plural paths)

1. A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
   • John Dryden

     The dewy paths of meadows we will tread.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

2. A course taken.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     Just before Warwick reached Liberty Point, a young woman came down Front Street from the direction of the market-house. When their paths converged, Warwick kept on down Front Street behind her, it having been already his intention to walk in this direction.

   the path of a meteor, of a caravan, or of a storm

3. (paganism) A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry.
4. A metaphorical course.
5. A method or direction of proceeding.
   • Bible, Psalms xxv. 10

     All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.

   • Gray

     The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

6. (computing) A human-readable specification for a location within a hierarchical or tree-like structure, such as a file system or as part of a URL
7. (graph theory) A sequence of vertices from one vertex to another using the arcs (edges). A path does not visit the same vertex more than once (unless it is a closed path, where only the first and the last vertex are the same).
8. (topology) A continuous map ${\displaystyle f}$ from the unit interval ${\displaystyle I=[0,1]}$ to a topological space ${\displaystyle X}$ .

• (1): track, trail; see also Thesaurus:way

path (third-person singular simple present paths, present participle pathing, simple past and past participle pathed)

1. (transitive) To make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone).
   • Drayton

     pathing young Henry's unadvised ways

Shortening.

path (uncountable)

1. (medicine, abbreviation) Pathology.

• Oxford English Dictionary [draft revision; June 2005]

• Ptah, phat

From Old English pæþ, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz, from an Iranian language, from Proto-Iranian *pántaHh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs.

• paþ, peth, paþþe, paaþ, pathe, paththe, pað, paath

• IPA^(key): /paθ/, /paːθ/, /pɛθ/
• Rhymes: -aθ

path (plural pathes)

1. A informal or unpaved path or trail; a track.
2. A choice or way of living; a doctrine.
3. (rare, Late Middle English) A course or route.
4. (rare, Late Middle English) A vessel or vein.

• pathen
• pathyng

• English: path
• Scots: paith

• “pā̆th (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-08.

From path (noun).

path

1. Alternative form of pathen