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pioneering

adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,713 of 15,258mostly written

Pioneering means being the first to develop something new. Pioneering work, a pioneering surgeon, pioneering research.

It is high praise and is nearly always awarded afterwards, since nobody knows at the time whether the road leads anywhere. The pioneer it comes from was a soldier sent ahead to clear the way.

Definitions of pioneering

  1. 1adjectivepioneeringBeing the first to develop something new.B2+

    “The hospital is known around the world for its pioneering heart surgery.”

pioneering is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Middle French

    pionnier

  2. English

    pioneer

  3. English, today

    pioneering

Built from

  • peon · Old French — a foot soldier

pioneer comes from Middle French pionnier. From Middle French pionnier (“originally, a foot soldier”), Old French peonier, from peon (“a foot soldier”) (modern French: pion). See pawn (in chess).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

pioneering in the wild

  • Many Scout and Guide groups train their members in pioneering skills and construct projects, both small and large.

    Pioneering (scouting)

  • Launched in February 2003, the newspaper is credited for pioneering citizen journalism in Japan.

    JANJAN

  • Established in the early 1970s, "the Kollel", as it is known, played a pioneering role in the growth and spread of Torah in South Africa.

    Kollel Yad Shaul

  • Kahng and Atalla later proposed the concept of the MOS integrated circuit, and they did pioneering work on Schottky diodes and nanolayer-base transistors in the early 1960s.

    Dawon Kahng

  • Brighton School was a loosely associated group of pioneering filmmakers active in the Brighton and Hove area of England from 1896 to 1910.

    Brighton School (filmmaking)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the peon family

pioneer

pioneering — used about once every 15,236 pages · #12,713 · point at the bar for the others