From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpathfinderpath‧find‧er /ˈpɑːθˌfaɪndə $ ˈpæθˌfaɪndər/ noun [countable] especially American English 1 LEADERsomeone who goes ahead of a group and finds the best way through unknown land2 FIND OUTa person who discovers new ways of doing things SYN trailblazer
Examples from the Corpus
pathfinder• Like the other black pathfinders, he came out of slavery.• It is precisely among these rootless pathfinders that pentecostalism is exhibiting its fastest growth.• It is worth pointing out that more work had been done by the pathfinders than many people realize.• If you consider yourself slower than the pathfinder then start late.• Pollock was the pathfinder, the original settler.• We were the pathfinders, which is what our name means.• The pathfinder prospectus, published on March 19, indicated only that the issue would be pitched between 530p and 645p.PathfinderPathfinder (also Mars Pathfinder) a US government space programme in which NASA sent a spacecraft without people inside to Mars in 1997 in order to find out more information about the planetFrom Longman Business Dictionarypathfinderpath‧find‧er /ˈpɑːθfaɪndəˈpæθfaɪndər/ noun [countable] a person or company that discovers a new way of doing somethingThe company is a pathfinder in terms of e-commerce. 