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If a tourist is guided through a city by a tour guide, what would be the term to use to refer to that tourist as a function of the guiding? Best I can come up with is guided one, but that sounds a bit bland. Are there any better terms for this? I'm looking for a term that can be used in a context where the term is the only thing that indicates guidance.

some context about the guidance:

The guide has a subordinate role, providing sensory information and advice to the person being guided. The person being guided is less a follower and more a master, but I don't want to use the term master because that feels too much like slavery. It's also not really a student/teacher relationship, because the information flows the wrong direction for that. Essentially, the guide has a role somewhere between mentor and assistent, and it's that role that I want to reflect in the term.

example:

"The [Word] was suddenly stopped by the tour guide".

"The [Word] was accompanied by his guide animal."

"The [Word] was on a tour of the building he helped fund."

"A [Word] can only receive guidance from 1 ancestor at a time." (context that I want to use it in in my book).

"A [Word] has heightened senses and an increased capacity for both abstract and logical thought."

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  • @Silenus But I'm not talking about someone on a tour, like a tourist. I'm looking for a word that can also be used to indicate a new employee being shown around their new workplace, or a blind man being guided by a dog, or a politician being shown a large new building they helped fund.
    – Nzall
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 11:22
  • Does it have to be a "real" word? Or (if this is for a novel, say) could a new word be made up based on "real" words?
    – Michael Seifert
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 15:23
  • Since a guide is someone who conducts travellers, is 'traveller' suitable, or is it too broad in that one can travel without a guide? Perhaps something in a similar line might do the trick, 'wayfarer', 'quester'?
    – Spagirl
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 15:40
  • When someone is being given a tour in a non-tourism context, they're usually called a "visitor" or "guest".
    – barbecue
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 17:45

5 Answers 5

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Consider guidee, which means

one who is guided.

An example sentence:

"The guidee was suddenly stopped by the guide."

It doesn't fit your desired context, though. For that, you might just want to go with a higher sortal, like "person":

"A person can only receive guidance from 1 ancestor at a time."

In fact, higher sortals work in all your examples, and are, in my opinion, preferable to using a synonym of "the guided" or "follower". Using the latter in your contexts actually creates redundancies since the consequent material of all of the sentences make it plain that the contexts are ones of guidance. There is no use to encode this information twice.

"The tourist was suddenly stopped by the tour guide".

"The blind man was accompanied by his guide animal."

"The executive was on a tour of the building he helped fund."

All of these sentences contain more information than would the corresponding sentence where the italicized sortal is substitued with a redundant synyonym of "follower".

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  • The problem is I may want to use that word in another context as well, like "A [Word] has heightened senses and a much larger capacity for logical thought."
    – Nzall
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 11:40
  • It sounds a bit like a sci-fi or fantasy work where spirits are allowed to mentor the living. If that's the case, I don't see a problem with using "guidee" in a somewhat mythologized sense. It feels like the kind of word sci-fi and fantasy writers would use: "A guidee can only levitate for 10 seconds before their powers evaporate." An alternative would be to call such individuals "the Guided" (capitalized for mythologization).
    – DyingIsFun
    Commented Sep 23, 2016 at 11:50
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I would use the word protégé:

A person who is guided and supported by an older and more experienced person or mentor.

I think it fits really well in the context of your book, since you are looking for a word for someone who is mentored. In any case, ancestors are, by definition, older if not more experienced.

This word may not fit the other contexts you mentioned, but I think that the examples put too much emphasis on the "assisting" part of things.

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You can also use mentee.

A person who is advised, trained, or counselled by a mentor.

For example,

"The mentee received constant guidance from her mentor."

Good luck!

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Since you are writing a book, you get to coin a word. Here's what I propose:

"A Receptive can only receive guidance from 1 ancestor at a time." (context that I want to use it in in my book).

This word I am suggesting has a little bit of a flavor of science fiction. Who knows if this fits the feel of your book? Perhaps you could tell us more about it.

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How about dignitary? It came to my mind when I thought of a head of state or a government minister being shown around a building or project.

The person showing them round guides and informs the dignitary so the information flows in the direction you want but the dignitary has the higher social status as you require. This is the case even if the guide is the project director, a senior military officer or the owner of the building and therefore a person of importance under normal circumstances.

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