Navigator

How to spell navigator

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce navigator

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does navigator mean?

1. nounA person or device that plans and directs the route of a ship, aircraft, or vehicle.

Navigator in a sentence

• The navigator plotted a course around the storm before takeoff.

• She acted as navigator on the rally, reading the map while her husband drove.

Where does navigator come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin navigator, an agent noun built on the verb navigare, meaning 'to sail' or 'to steer a ship'. That verb was itself a compound of navis, the Latin word for 'ship', and agere, meaning 'to drive' or 'to lead', so the literal idea is someone who drives a ship along. English picked the word up in the 1500s during the great age of sea exploration, when charting a course across open water was a prized and dangerous skill. The same navis root sits inside 'navy', 'naval', and 'nave' (the long central body of a church, named for its resemblance to an upturned hull), while agere gives us 'agent' and 'act'. Over time the meaning broadened from the sea to anyone or anything that plots and follows a route, including the talking satellite device in a modern car. The single 'g' followed by the plain '-ator' ending is the part to watch, since the unstressed middle syllable hides an 'i' that is easy to swap or drop.

How the word is built

• navig- (from Latin navigare: to sail or steer a ship)
• -ator (agent suffix: one who does)