Meanings
plural trajectories
- The path an object takes as it moves.
1 more example
The USA were dominant but, to England’s immense credit, they repeatedly rallied, refusing to fold. Indeed they could conceivably have gone in level at the interval had Naeher not made an acrobatic, stretching, fingertip save to divert Walsh’s 25-yard thunderbolt as it whizzed unerringly on its apparently inexorable trajectory towards the top corner.
2019 July 2, Louise Taylor, The Guardian - spaceastronomyThe path of a body as it travels through space.
- cyberneticsThe ordered set of intermediate states assumed by a dynamical system as a result of time evolution.
- figurativelyA course of development, such as that of a war or career.
1 more example
It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.
2013 March 28, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2017, page 83
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*(H)yeh₁-“to throw, impel”
- Latintrāiectus“thrown over or across”
- New Latintrāiectōria f“trajectory”
- Englishtrajectory
From New Latin trāiectōria f (“trajectory”) (used by Newton), the feminine of trāiectōrius (“of or pertaining to throwing across”), from Latin trāiectus (“thrown over or across”), past participle of trāiciō, from trans- (“across, beyond”) (see trans-) + iaciō (“to throw”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw, impel”)). Middle French and Middle English had trajectorie (“end of a funnel”), from Latin trāiectōrium.
More words from New Latin, Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic مَسَار
- مَسَار (masār)path of a body
Basque traiektoria
- traiektoriapath of a body
Bulgarian траекто́рия
- траекто́рия (traektórija)path of a body
Catalan trajectòria
- trajectòriapath of a body
Chinese Mandarin 軌道 /轨道, 彈道 /弹道
- 軌道 /轨道 (guǐdào)path of a body
- 彈道 /弹道 (dàndào)path of a body
Czech dráha, trajektorie
- dráhapath of a body
- trajektoriepath of a body
Danish bane
- banepath of a body
Dutch baan, traject
- baanpath of a body
- trajectpath of a body
Esperanto trajektorio
- trajektoriopath of a body
Estonian trajektoor
- trajektoorpath of a body
Finnish rata, lentorata
- ratapath of a body
- lentoratapath of a body
- kehittyminenordered set of intermediate states
- kulkucourse of development
- kehittyminencourse of development
French trajectoire
- trajectoirepath of a body
German Flugbahn, Bahn
- Flugbahnpath of a body
- Bahnpath of a body
- Trajektoriepath of a body
- Entwicklungordered set of intermediate states
- Entwicklungsverlaufcourse of development
Greek τροχιά, τροχιά
- τροχιά (trochiá)path of a body
- τροχιά (trochiá)course of development
Hebrew מַסְלוּל
- מַסְלוּל (maslúl)path of a body
Hindi प्रक्षेपवक्र
- प्रक्षेपवक्र (prakṣepvakra)path of a body
Hungarian röppálya, pálya
- röppályapath of a body
- pályapath of a body
- pályagörbepath of a body
- útpath of a body
- útvonalpath of a body
- ívcourse of development
- menetcourse of development
- kimenetelcourse of development
- lefolyáscourse of development
- lefutáscourse of development
- kifutáscourse of development
- alakuláscourse of development
Irish conair, ruthag
- conairpath of a body
- ruthagpath of a body
- cúrsacourse of development
- treochtcourse of development
Italian traiettoria
- traiettoriapath of a body
Japanese 軌道, 弾道
- 軌道 (kidō)path of a body
- 弾道 (dandō)path of a body
- 戦歴 (senreki)course of development
Korean 궤도, 탄도
- 궤도 (gwedo)path of a body
- 탄도 (tando)path of a body
Latvian trajektorija
- trajektorijapath of a body
Lithuanian trajektòrija
- trajektòrijapath of a body
Māori arawhiu
- arawhiupath of a body
Norwegian Bokmål bane
- banepath of a body
Persian مسیر پرتاب
- مسیر پرتاب (masir-e partâb)path of a body
Polish trajektoria, bieg
- trajektoriapath of a body
- biegpath of a body
- biegcourse of development
Portuguese trajetória, trajectória
- trajetóriapath of a body
- trajectóriapath of a body
- trajetóriaordered set of intermediate states
- trajetóriacourse of development
Romanian traiectorie
- traiectoriepath of a body
Russian траекто́рия, траекто́рия
- траекто́рия (traektórija)path of a body
- траекто́рия (traektórija)ordered set of intermediate states
Slovak trajektória, dráha
- trajektóriapath of a body
- dráhapath of a body
Spanish trayectoria
- trayectoriapath of a body
Swedish bana
- banapath of a body
Tagalog imbulog
- imbulogpath of a body
Tamil போக்கு
- போக்கு (pōkku)path of a body
Thai วิถี
- วิถี (wí-tǐi)path of a body
Turkish yörünge, gelişme
- yörüngepath of a body
- gelişmeordered set of intermediate states
Ukrainian траєкто́рія
- траєкто́рія (trajektórija)path of a body
Vietnamese quỹ đạo
- quỹ đạopath of a body
Welsh llwybr
- llwybrpath of a body
Cite this entry
trajectory. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trajectory
“trajectory.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trajectory. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trajectory,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trajectory.
Source: trajectory on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.