What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Trace vs Path - What's the difference?

trace | path |

In transitive terms the difference between trace and path

is that trace is to copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines while path is to make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone).

trace

English

(wikipedia trace)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) trace, traas, from (etyl) , from the verb (see below).

Noun

(en noun)
  • An act of tracing.
  • A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.
  • A very small amount.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=7 citation , passage=The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.}}
  • (electronics) An electric current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
  • An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
  • One of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whippletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug.
  • (fortification) The ground plan of a work or works.
  • The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
  • (mathematics) The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.
  • Derived terms
    * downtrace, uptrace
    Synonyms
    * (mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal) track, trail * (small amount) see also .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) tracen, from (etyl) tracer, .

    Verb

  • To follow the trail of.
  • * Milton
  • I feel thy power to trace the ways / Of highest agents.
    (Cowper)
  • To follow the history of.
  • * T. Burnet
  • You may trace the deluge quite round the globe.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=July 19 , author=Ella Davies , title=Sticks insects survive one million years without sex , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=They traced the ancient lineages of two species to reveal the insects' lengthy history of asexual reproduction.}}
  • To draw or sketch lightly or with care.
  • He carefully traced the outlines of the old building before him.
  • To copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines.
  • (obsolete) To copy; to imitate.
  • * Denham
  • That servile path thou nobly dost decline, / Of tracing word, and line by line.
  • (obsolete) To walk; to go; to travel.
  • * Spenser
  • Not wont on foot with heavy arms to trace .
  • (obsolete) To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
  • * Shakespeare
  • We do trace this alley up and down.

    Anagrams

    * * * * * ----

    path

    English

    (wikipedia path)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • The dewy paths of meadows we will tread.
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • A course taken.
  • * 1900 , , , Chapter I,
  • Just before Warwick reached Liberty Point, a young woman came down Front Street from the direction of the market-house. When their paths converged, Warwick kept on down Front Street behind her, it having been already his intention to walk in this direction.
  • (paganism) A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry.
  • A metaphorical course.
  • A method or direction of proceeding.
  • * Bible, Psalms xxv. 10
  • All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.
  • * Gray
  • The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
  • (computing) 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
  • (graph theory) A sequence of vertices]] from one vertex to another using the arcs ([[edge, 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).
  • (topology) A continuous map f from the unit interval I = [0,1] to a topological space X.
  • Synonyms

    * (1): track, trail; see also

    Derived terms

    * bridle path * cross paths * cycle path * footpath * path of least resistance * pathway

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone).
  • * Drayton
  • pathing young Henry's unadvised ways

    References

    * Oxford English Dictionary [draft revision; June 2005]