breadcrumb

Definitions

1. A tiny piece of bread, either one that falls from bread as it is cut or eaten, or one made deliberately by crumbling bread.
   in-plural
2. A single link in a chain indicating the hierarchical location of a directory, web page or similar, used as a navigation aid.
   in-plural
3. A fragment of data that serves to log the actions taken by a program, used in debugging.
   in-plural
4. One in a series of clues leading to a person or place.
   figuratively, in-plural

Equivalents

Examples

“Breadcrumbs usually look⟳ something like⟳ this: "Home > About Us > Staff" and are positioned near the top navigation. […] The words in the breadcrumbs are links to pages at higher levels of the website.”

“If you believe⟳ the system can merrily proceed despite an assertion failure, code the exception handler to log⟳ the error, leaving debugging breadcrumbs behind, and return⟳.”

“[…] track metrics used to improve⟳ performance, or log⟳ a series of breadcrumbs to track an application's progress⟳, […]”

“Before he died, James Halliday (Mark⟳ Rylance), the hermit-like, socially maladjusted tech genius who created The Oasis, hid an Easter egg somewhere in the circuitry, scattering bread crumbs that lead⟳ to its location. Find⟳ the egg, and the mogul’s fortune—along with total control⟳ of his digital fiefdom—is yours. It’s the ultimate capitalist scavenger hunt!”

CEFR level