putanje

Putanje is the plural form of putanja, a feminine noun used in Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian to denote a line or trace along which something moves. It encompasses meanings such as path, trajectory, course, or route. The term derives from put, meaning road or way, with the suffix -anja forming a noun of action or result.

In science and mathematics, putanja refers to the trajectory of a moving object—the locus of points described by its motion. Common phrases include putanja projektila (projectile trajectory), putanja čestice (particle path), and putanja planete (planetary trajectory). In geography and everyday language, it can describe a physical route, such as a hiking path or a road network, or historical migratory routes.

In computer science and information technology, putanja is widely used to denote a file path or directory path, as in putanja do fajla or putanja do direktorija. In graph theory and networking, putanje describe a sequence of edges connecting nodes (putanje u grafu). Algorithms such as Dijkstra’s or BFS are concerned with finding the shortest or optimal putanja.

Metaphorically, putanje can describe the course of events or a development path, for example, putanja razvoja or putanja karijere. The term is often interchangeable with related words such as put, staza, or ruta, depending on context and regional usage. See also putanja, put, ruta.