Definition of navigate verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
NAVIGATE meaning: 1 : to find the way to get to a place when you are traveling in a ship, airplane, car, etc. often used figuratively; 2 : to sail on, over, or through an area of water
to walk or find one's way on, in, or across: [~ + object] It was hard to navigate the stairs in the dark. [no object] Do you think you can navigate through the downtown area safely?
To navigate means to plan, direct, or plot a path or course from one location to another. This term can be used broadly to refer to a variety of contexts including physical travel, interaction with an environment, or management of complex systems or information.
There are 14 meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb navigate, one of which is labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
To navigate is to determine a path or course. If you volunteer to navigate on your family’s road trip to Alaska, be sure you’re the type who’s willing to stop and ask for directions. Navigate, like “navy” and “naval,” comes from the Latin word navis meaning “ship.”
navigate (third-person singular simple present navigates, present participle navigating, simple past and past participle navigated) (transitive) To plan, control and record the position and course of a vehicle, ship, aircraft, etc., on a journey; to follow a planned course. quotations
