pioneer
UK/ˌpaɪ.əˈnɪə(ɹ)//ˌpaɪ.əˈnɪɹ/
pioneer noun: one who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow. Also the alternative letter-case form of Pioneer.
Noun (1)
pioneer (plural pioneers)
- One who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow.
- A person or other entity who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress.
- Some people will consider their national heroes to be pioneers of civilization.
- Certain politicians can be considered as pioneers of reform.
- A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances; a sapper.
- [King of] Fess. What thinks your greatnes beſt to be atchieu’d
In purſuit of the Cities ouerthrow?
Bai[azeth]. I wil the captiue Pioners of Argier,
Cut off the water, that by leaden pipes
Runs to the citie from the mountain Carnon, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- [King of] Fess. What thinks your greatnes beſt to be atchieu’d
- A member of any of several European organizations advocating abstinence from alcohol.
- A member of a children’s organization operated by the Communist Party, typically in the second of three stages toward becoming a member of the Party itself.
Verb
pioneer (third-person singular simple present pioneers, present participle pioneering, simple past and past participle pioneered)
- To be the first to do or achieve (something), preparing the way for others to follow.
- The young doctor pioneered a new life-saving surgical technique.
- Synonyms:
- push the envelope, break new ground
Noun (2) capitalized: Pioneer
Pioneer (plural Pioneers)
- A person born on or before 31 December 1949 and possessing Singapore citizenship on or before 31 December 1986, given this status and certain benefits to recognise their contributions to Singapore's early development.
- Now they are trying hard, working hard, in trying to "give back" […] to the older people classified as "pioneer generations" […]2014, Zanzibar [pseudonym], soc.culture.singapore (Usenet)
- As someone from the Pioneer Generation, I have experienced much hardship […] from the scourge of water-rationing in the 1960s […]2017 March 15, Jeffrey Law Lee Beng, “Saving water is everyone’s moral duty”, in Today, Singapore: Mediacorp Press, →OCLC, page 40
Proper noun capitalized: Pioneer
Pioneer
- A census-designated place in Amador County, California, United States.
- A planning area in the West Region of Singapore.
- A locality in Dorset council area, north eastern Tasmania, Australia.
Also used as
pioneer is also the alternative letter-case form of Pioneer.
pioneer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Arabic
pioneer in Hindi
- one who goes before
- अग्रणी agraṇī
pioneer in Tamil
- one who goes before
- முன்னோடி muṉṉōṭi
pioneer in Marathi
- one who goes before
- अग्रणी agraṇī
pioneer in Arabic
- one who goes before
- رَائِد rāʔid
More languagesFewer languages
- pioneer in Malay
- perintis
- pioneer in Persian
- پیشتاز pištâz
- pioneer in Thai
- ผู้บุกเบิก, บุกเบิก
- pioneer in Vietnamese
- namviet
Examples of pioneer in a sentence
- The pioneers survived by eating the small game they could get: rabbits, squirrels and occasionally a raccoon.
- Those three pioneering pathologists went on to become leaders in building the pathology departments at several universities.
- He was a pioneer in underwater exploration.
Synonyms of pioneer
Forms of pioneer
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pioneers |
| plural | Pioneers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pioneers |
| present participle | pioneering |
| past participle | pioneered |
| past | pioneered |
Origin of pioneer
From Middle French pionnier (“originally, a foot soldier”), Old French peonier, from peon (“a foot soldier”) (modern French: pion). See pawn (in chess).
Words formed from pioneer
Phrases with pioneer
Words that rhyme with pioneer
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- spear
- career
- fear
- here
- steer
- appear
- cavalier
- cheer
- leer
- queer
- volunteer
- adhere
- beer
- chandelier
- deer
- financier
- pier
- premier
- privateer
- sheer
- veer
- vizier
- austere
- bombardier
- brigadier
- cashmere
- commandeer
- disappear
- endear
- grenadier
- interfere
- mere
- mountaineer
- peer
- sear
- tear
- tier
- unclear
- arrear
- bier
- blear
- cameleer
- cashier
- chiffonier
- cohere
- fakir
- farseer
- frontier
Questions about pioneer
- What does pioneer mean?
- Pioneer means one who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow.
- What is pioneer in Hindi?
- Pioneer in Hindi is अग्रणी (agraṇī). See Pioneer meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pioneer?
- Pioneer can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pioneer?
- Pioneer is pronounced /ˌpaɪ.əˈnɪə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pioneer?
- The plural of pioneer is pioneers.
Words near pioneer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pioneer (page history and authors); Pioneer (page history and authors). 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-us-pioneer.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pioneer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pioneer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.