path
[pʰɑːθ]noun, verb
path is spelled P-A-T-H: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 51 times per million words in written English, the 1,993rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, path means “A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of path is paths.
How many letters and syllables are in path?
| Letters | 4: P-A-T-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 51 times per million words; the 1,993rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is path?
Path appears 51 times per million words in written English, the 1,993rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce path?
- /pɑːθ/
- UK [pʰɑːθ]
- Australia [pʰäːθ]
Path has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-path.ogg, En-uk-a_path.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with path?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as path.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: phat.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of path
- paths plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pathing participle, present
- pathed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does path mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
- 2
A course taken.
the path of a meteor, of a caravan, or of a storm
- 3
A metaphorical course or route; progress.
- 4
A method or direction of proceeding.
- 5
A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry.
- 6
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.
Use the network path \\Marketing\Files to find the documents you need.
- 7
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
A continuous map f from the unit interval I=[0,1] to a topological space X.
- 9
Pathology.
verb
- 1
To make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone).
- 2
To navigate through a file system directory tree (to a desired file or folder).
Next, you need to path to the location of the executable and run it from there.
- 3
To pathfind.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Path in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sentier, chemin , -pathe |
| German | Pfad , -path, -pathin , Weg |
| Portuguese | trilha, caminho, senda , -pata |
| Spanish | senda, sendero, trocha, trillo , camino |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does path come from?
From Middle English path, peth, from Old English pæþ (“path, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *paþ, from Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”). The Proto-Germanic term is possibly borrowed from Iranian, from Proto-Iranian *pántaHs, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *pántaHs, from Proto-Indo-European *póntoh₁s, from the root *pent- (“to pass”), but this is disputed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).