Meaning & use
pathway
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Meanings
nouncountable
A narrow track or route for walking along.
Grammar: Used for the physical route: the pathway to the door.
Patterns
- a pathway to something
- a pathway through something
A stone pathway led to the front door.
The garden pathway was lined with lavender.
Snow covered the pathway through the woods.
nouncountablefigurative
A series of steps or stages that leads to a goal or outcome.
Grammar: Often figurative: a pathway to success.
Patterns
- a pathway to something
- a pathway into something
The programme offers a pathway to citizenship.
She followed a career pathway in nursing.
Education can be a pathway out of poverty.
nouncountablebiology
A chain of linked chemical reactions or nerve signals in the body.
Grammar: Used in biology and medicine.
Patterns
- a pathway for something
Scientists mapped the metabolic pathway of the drug.
Pain signals travel along a nerve pathway to the brain.
The study traced the pathway of the virus.
Word forms
| plural | pathways |
|---|
Common combinations
- garden pathway
- We swept the garden pathway.
- career pathway
- The college outlines each career pathway.
- pathway to success
- Hard work is the pathway to success.
- neural pathway
- Practice strengthens neural pathways.
- clear a pathway
- They cleared a pathway through the rubble.
- pathway to citizenship
- The bill creates a pathway to citizenship.
Synonyms and how they differ
- path
- It is the shorter, everyday word and is more common for physical tracks.
- route
- It stresses the way taken between two places and is more neutral.
- track
- It suggests a rougher, beaten way.
- avenue
- It often means a possible way of achieving something, and is used with explore.
Opposites
Word family
- path noun
- a track for walking
- pathfinder noun
- a person who finds new routes
- footpath noun
- a path for walkers
- walkway noun
- a path or passage for walking
Commonly confused: pathway or pathology?
pathway vs pathology
Pathology is the study of disease, not a route, even though both begin with path.
Practice
The college offers a clear ______ from a two-year diploma to a full degree.
Choose one answer.
Pathway can be a figurative route to a goal. The other words name physical passages.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pathway”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.