pave the way
UK/ˈpeɪv ðə ˈweɪ/
pave the way verb: to make future progress or development easier.
Verb
pave the way (third-person singular simple present paves the way, present participle paving the way, simple past and past participle paved the way)
- To make future progress or development easier.
- Germany's development of rocket weapons paved the way for human controlled spaceflight.
- A perverting of this Firſt and Original Chriſtian Principle, by Political and Aſpiring Church-Guides, […] did not only pave the way for Popery, but both laid the Foundation thereof and finiſh'd its Superſtructure: […]1705, Robert Fleming, “[The Epistle Dedicatory]”, in Christology. A Discourse Concerning Christ: Considered I In Himself, II In His Government, and III In Relation to His Subjects and Their Duty to...
- Synonyms:
- grease the wheels, set the stage, prepare the ground
pave the way meaning in Malayalam
pave the way in Malayalam
- for prepare (the way) for, make preparations for, get ready for
- വഴി സുഗമമാക്കുക, മാർഗ്ഗംവെട്ടിത്തെളിക്കുക, വഴിയൊരുക്കുക, കളമൊരുക്കുക, സാഹചര്യമൊരുക്കുക, അന്തരീക്ഷമൊരുക്കുക
Examples of pave the way in a sentence
- As we have seen, some of the women active before the feminist movement showed a concern for women's oppression and rights and helped pave the way for the exploration of women's issues in performance.1988, Sue-Ellen Case, “Radical Feminism and Theatre”, in Feminism and Theatre, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 62:
- Siemens has landed a contract to upgrade signalling on the entire 170km (105-mile) S-Bane suburban network in Copenhagen to pave the way for fully automated trains.2024 May 1, “Network News: Danes plan fully automated trains”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 18:
Synonyms of pave the way
Forms of pave the way
| third-person singular present | paves the way |
|---|---|
| present participle | paving the way |
| past participle | paved the way |
| past | paved the way |
Origin of pave the way
From the idea that once a paved path has been laid, travel on the route is easier and smoother for others.
Questions about pave the way
- What does pave the way mean?
- Pave the way means to make future progress or development easier.
- What is pave the way in Malayalam?
- Pave the way in Malayalam is വഴി സുഗമമാക്കുക, മാർഗ്ഗംവെട്ടിത്തെളിക്കുക, വഴിയൊരുക്കുക. See Pave the way meaning in Malayalam.
- How do you use pave the way in a sentence?
- As we have seen, some of the women active before the feminist movement showed a concern for women's oppression and rights and helped pave the way for the exploration of women's issues in performance.
- What part of speech is pave the way?
- Pave the way is a verb.
- How do you pronounce pave the way?
- Pave the way is pronounced /ˈpeɪv ðə ˈweɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of pave the way?
- The past tense of pave the way is paved the way.
Words near pave the way in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pave the way (page history and authors); pave the way (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-pave the way.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pave the way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pave_the_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.