Word.ws English Dictionary

wayfinding

wayfinding noun: the ability of a person or animal to orientate itself and to navigate; the process used by a person or animal for orienting and navigating.

Noun

wayfinding (uncountable)

  1. (attributive, often) The ability of a person or animal to orientate itself and to navigate; the process used by a person or animal for orienting and navigating.
    • Buncombe County’s Tourism Development Authority unveiled its $1.65 million wayfinding program in 2009, consisting of more than 300 signs directing visitors to nearly 90 attractions, public spaces, historic sites and other destinations.2014 May 2, Nathaniel Axtell, “Sign of the times: TDA plans wayfinding program to guide tourism”, in blueridgenow.com, retrieved 09 May 2014
    • And that difference in style is often cast as being part of the basis of gender differences in wayfinding. People say that women are more likely to navigate with landmarks and men are more likely to navigate using the cardinal directions.2009 July 8, Kristi Oloffson, “Why We Get Lost”, in Time, retrieved 09 May 2014

Examples of wayfinding in a sentence

  • These built‐in features in the natural and man‐made environment are the passive tools of wayfinding.2015, Chris Calori, David Vanden-Eynden, Signage and Wayfinding Design:
  • New signage is being installed to enhance wayfinding and USB sockets are being added in the main concourse area and Platform 8's waiting area.2021 October 6, “Network News: Upgrades start at Cardiff Central”, in RAIL, number 941, page 24:

Forms of wayfinding

alternative formway-finding

Origin of wayfinding

From way + finding.

Questions about wayfinding

What does wayfinding mean?
Wayfinding means the ability of a person or animal to orientate itself and to navigate; the process used by a person or animal for orienting and navigating.
How do you use wayfinding in a sentence?
These built‐in features in the natural and man‐made environment are the passive tools of wayfinding.
What part of speech is wayfinding?
Wayfinding is a noun.

Words near wayfinding in the dictionary

  1. wayfarings
  2. wayfellow
  3. wayfellows
  4. wayfinder
  5. wayfinders
  6. wayfinding
  7. Wayford
  8. Waygara
  9. waygate
  10. waygates
  11. waygoing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wayfinding (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.

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Cite this entry: “wayfinding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wayfinding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.