What term describes the path that a planet takes around the Sun?

The term "orbit" specifically refers to the curved path that a celestial body, such as a planet, follows as it revolves around another body—in this case, the Sun. Orbits are primarily determined by gravitational forces, where a planet's speed and the gravitational pull of the Sun create a balanced motion, allowing the planet to continually move around the Sun rather than falling into it.

While the ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun across the sky as observed from Earth, which reflects the plane in which most planets orbit the Sun, it does not directly describe the path of an individual planet. Similarly, trajectory generally refers to the path that an object follows through space, but it is a more general term and not exclusive to orbits around a star. Planetary belts, such as the asteroid belt, refer to regions in space containing many small bodies, rather than describing a specific orbital path of a planet. Thus, "orbit" is the most precise and appropriate term for the path that a planet takes around the Sun.