traversed

Traversed is the past tense and past participle of traverse. It means to travel across, pass over, or to examine thoroughly. In ordinary use, something that has been traversed has been crossed or explored. Etymology: traverse derives from Latin trans "across" and vertere "to turn," via Old French traverser. The sense expanded from moving across a space to examining it comprehensively.

Uses are varied. In geography and navigation, to traverse a region means to travel along or across it, often describing a journey that involves crossing terrain such as mountains or rivers. In surveying and cartography, a traverse is a method of establishing a network of lines and points across land; a finished survey may be described as traversed. In mathematics and computer science, traversal refers to visiting nodes in a data structure or elements of a graph or tree. Common examples include graph traversal algorithms such as depth-first search and breadth-first search; a traversed graph has had its nodes visited according to the chosen strategy. In general prose, traversed can describe paths or routes that have been walked or explored.

Adjective usage is common as well. The traversed route, traversed terrain, or traversed edges describe things that have been crossed or examined. Related terms include traversal (the noun form), traverser (one who traverses), and traversable (able to be traversed). The word thus encompasses physical movement across space as well as systematic examination or processing of structures in formal contexts.