pacesetter

noun

pace·​set·​ter ˈpās-ˌse-tər 

: pacemaker sense 1

pacesetting

ˈpās-ˌse-tiŋ 

adjective

Synonyms

• bellwether
• leader
• pacemaker
• pacer
• trendsetter

Example Sentences

a company that has been a pacesetter in its field for offering health care benefits to employees

Recent Examples on the Web

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. —Jason Farago, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2022

He’s still got two shots with Authentic (18, 8-1), the likely pacesetter who will start from the far outside, and Thousand Words (10, 12-1), who upset Honor A.P. in his last race. —Dana Gauruder, Detroit Free Press, 3 Sep. 2020

In 1962, at a 50-mile swim from Chicago to Kenosha, Wis., an Egyptian team relied on Ms. Andersen as the event pacesetter. —Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2023

The pacesetter remained Nehru’s India, whose alternative drug economy was perceived by U.S. drug companies as a threat, not just to its profits in developing countries but to the very legitimacy of monopoly medicine, including inside the U.S., where the real money was made. —Alexander Zaitchik, The New Republic, 1 June 2021

But the pacesetter here is the genuinely terrific Netflix Formula 1 series Drive to Survive, about to debut its fifth season, which is rightly credited with a surge of interest in the sport. —Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 17 Feb. 2023

Then, Corum, its pacesetter, hurt his knee and the Wolverines started to show some cracks. —Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press, 25 Nov. 2022

During a speech in Egypt at the COP27 climate conference, Biden touted the United States as the global pacesetter in fighting climate change. —Yasmeen Abutaleb, Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2022

The Prototype Festival, the pacesetter for contemporary music theatre in New York, postponed its tenth-anniversary season in January, a casualty of the Omicron surge. —Oussama Zahr, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1895, in the meaning defined above