trailblazer

From trail (noun) +‎ blazer (noun).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹeɪlbleɪzə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹeɪlˌbleɪzəɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæɪlˌblæɪzə/
• Hyphenation: trail‧blaz‧er

trailblazer (plural trailblazers)

1. Synonym of pathfinder.
   1. One who discovers or makes a new path or way through an untraversed region.
   2. (figurative) One who is the first to do something in a particular field; an innovator, a pioneer.

      Synonyms: groundbreaker, outrider, pathbreaker, roadmaker, trailcutter, trailbreaker, waymaker

      Coordinate term: game changer

      • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner’s punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport section)‎^[1], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 July 2025, page S22:

        Yes, there were instances of grandstanding and obsessive behaviour, but many were concealed at the time to help protect an aggressively peddled narrative of [Oscar] Pistorius the paragon, the emblem, the trailblazer.

• roadbuilder

• trailblazer (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “trail-blazer, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025.
• “trailblazer, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.