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1. Open up an area or prepare a way
   "She pioneered a graduate program for women students";
   - open up
    
2. Take the lead or initiative in; participate in the development of
   "This South African surgeon pioneered heart transplants";
   - initiate
    
3. Open up and explore a new area
   "pioneer space"

1. Someone who helps to open up a new line of research, technology or art
   - innovator, trailblazer, groundbreaker, path-breaker
    
2. One of the first colonists or settlers in a new territory
   "they went west as pioneers with only the possessions they could carry with them"

Derived forms: pioneers, pioneered, pioneering

See also: open

Type of: cause, colonist, conceiver, do, engender, explore, innovate, introduce, make, mastermind, originator, settler

Encyclopedia: Pioneer, Michigan