Pacesetter
noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who or that which determines the rate of action through leading.
"It’s all been a dreadful embarrassment, but why should anyone outside Germany be concerned? Because Documenta was always a pacesetter — and this year’s edition certainly put its finger on a larger shift, seen too in our museums, our art schools and our magazines, away from aesthetic ambition and intellectual seriousness and toward the easier comforts of togetherness, advocacy and fun."
- 2 a horse used to set the pace in racing wordnet
- 3 a leading instance in its field wordnet
Example
More examples"It’s all been a dreadful embarrassment, but why should anyone outside Germany be concerned? Because Documenta was always a pacesetter — and this year’s edition certainly put its finger on a larger shift, seen too in our museums, our art schools and our magazines, away from aesthetic ambition and intellectual seriousness and toward the easier comforts of togetherness, advocacy and fun."
Etymology
From pace + setter.
More for "pacesetter"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.