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Glite Dictionary
🚀 A rocket platform 🏁 A starting point
launch pad

launch pad

1 3.7
A thing that helps someone start a job or project
  • noun
  • /lɔːnʧ pæd/
translation icon : punto de partida
  • What we once thought of as a home is merely A launching pad to an unlimited realm space.

Normally, graduation is a launching pad into the unknown.

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Examples

  • Normally, graduation is a launching pad into the unknown.

    Stanford

  • They want to take it as a launching pad for them and their generation to change the country.

    Stanford

  • OK, so Annie Cohn, the workshop is thought to have been a launching pad for a number of Tampa's African American seamstresses, Right.

  • But, to his dismay, his academic achievement served as a launch pad for fear of failure—fear that he would not and could not live up to others' expectations.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The local community center serves as a launch pad for aspiring artists to showcase their work.

  • The internship provided a launch pad for her career in environmental science.

  • The new training program will act as a launch pad for young entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses.

Synonyms

launchpad
vslaunch pad
2 3.9

A starting place that helps a person or project begin and succeed

is the same idea but written as two words rather than one
jumping-off place
vslaunch pad
1 6.3

A place where someone starts a journey, project, or activity

is used more for starting projects or careers rather than literal journeys

Antonyms

termination
3 5.5

The end point of something like a road or tunnel

How Helpful

springboard
12 4.2
launch pad
1 3.7

Surface Forms

launch pad singular
launch pads plural
launchpads plural
launchpad singular

Morphology

launch + pad

The meaning 'a place or situation that serves as a starting point' is directly and compositionally built from 'launch' (to initiate or set in motion) + 'pad' (a platform), so a learner who knows both words can infer the literal sense. The extended, metaphorical use for careers or projects is a straightforward extension of the literal platform-for-launch concept and is cross-linguistically common, making the expression immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.

Etymology

Launch pad comes from the rocket picture: a small pad that helps a rocket launch up into the sky. That's why people call a job, event, or place a 'launch pad' when it gives someone a strong start for a project or career.