pathway

/ˌpæθˈweɪ/

/ˈpɑθweɪ/

Other forms: pathways

A pathway is a trail or other walkway. Hikers often follow a well-worn pathway as they walk through the woods.

Use the noun pathway to mean a walk, path, or trail — any marked way that's meant or used for walking. The pathway you follow on your way to school might lead you over a stream and through a field, or it might meander down a narrow city alley. Pathway is essentially a longer, redundant way to say "path," and in fact it comes from path and its Old English root pæþ, "path or track," which has a Germanic origin.

Definitions of pathway

1. noun

   a trodden path
   synonyms: footpath

   type of:

   path

   a way especially designed for a particular use
2. noun

   a bundle of myelinated nerve fibers following a path through the brain
   synonyms: nerve pathway, nerve tract, tract

   types:

   optic radiation, radiatio optica

   a nerve pathway from the lateral geniculate body to the visual cortex

   commissure

   a bundle of nerve fibers passing from one side to the other of the brain or spinal cord

   cerebral peduncle, peduncle

   a bundle of myelinated neurons joining different parts of the brain

   corpus callosum

   a broad transverse nerve tract connecting the two cerebral hemispheres

   type of:

   substantia alba, white matter

   whitish nervous tissue of the CNS consisting of neurons and their myelin sheaths