diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d6eab03c0..87470dae4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 - The validation methods have been updated with multiple breaking changes. @stephprince [#1911](https://github.com/NeurodataWithoutBorders/pynwb/pull/1911)
    - The behavior of `pynwb.validate(io=...)` now matches the behavior of `pynwb.validate(path=...)`. In previous pynwb versions, `pynwb.validate(io=...)` did not use the cached namespaces during validation. To obtain the same behavior as in previous versions, you can update the function call to `pynwb.validate(io=..., use_cached_namespaces=False)`
    - `pynwb.validate` will return only a list of validation errors instead of a tuple: (list of validation_errors, status code)
+   - the `pynwb.validate(path=...)` argument has been added as a replacement for `pynwb.validate(paths=[...])`, which will be deprecated in a future major release [#2024](https://github.com/NeurodataWithoutBorders/pynwb/pull/2024)
    - The validate module has been renamed to `validation.py`. The validate method can be 
    imported using `import pynwb; pynwb.validate` or `from pynwb import validate`
 
diff --git a/src/pynwb/validation.py b/src/pynwb/validation.py
index d2fb5cb17..cc40ba166 100644
--- a/src/pynwb/validation.py
+++ b/src/pynwb/validation.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 from hdmf.spec import NamespaceCatalog
 from hdmf.build import BuildManager, TypeMap
-from hdmf.utils import docval, getargs, AllowPositional
+from hdmf.utils import docval, getargs, popargs, AllowPositional
 from hdmf.backends.io import HDMFIO
 from hdmf.validate import ValidatorMap
 
@@ -97,6 +97,13 @@ def get_cached_namespaces_to_validate(path: Optional[str] = None,
         "doc": "A specific namespace to validate against.",
         "default": None,
     },  # Argument order is for back-compatability
+    {
+         "name": "paths",
+         "type": list,
+         "doc": ("List of NWB file paths. This argument will be deprecated in PyNWB 4.0. "
+                 "Use 'path' instead."),
+         "default": None,
+    },
     {
         "name": "path",
         "type": (str, Path),
@@ -134,6 +141,29 @@ def validate(**kwargs):
     compliance with the schema and compliance of data with NWB best practices.
     """
 
+    paths, path = popargs("paths", "path", kwargs)
+
+    if paths is not None:
+        warn("The 'paths' argument will be deprecated in PyNWB 4.0 "
+            "Use 'path' instead. To migrate, call this function separately for "
+            "each path instead of passing a list.",
+            DeprecationWarning)
+
+        if path is not None:
+            raise ValueError("Both 'paths' and 'path' were specified. "
+                             "Please choose only one.")
+
+        validation_errors = []
+        for p in paths:
+            validation_errors +=  _validate_single_file(path=p, **kwargs)
+    else:
+        validation_errors = _validate_single_file(path=path, **kwargs)
+
+    return validation_errors
+
+
+def _validate_single_file(**kwargs):
+
     io, path, use_cached_namespaces, namespace, verbose, driver = getargs(
         "io", "path", "use_cached_namespaces", "namespace", "verbose", "driver", kwargs
     )
diff --git a/tests/validation/test_validate.py b/tests/validation/test_validate.py
index dc1be008c..ad4960ed4 100644
--- a/tests/validation/test_validate.py
+++ b/tests/validation/test_validate.py
@@ -332,3 +332,22 @@ def test_validate_io_and_path_same(self):
 
             # remove path from error messages since it will not be included in io outputs
             self.assertEqual(str(e_io.exception), str(e_path.exception))
+
+    def test_validate_paths_deprecation(self):
+        """Test paths argument deprecation warning."""
+
+        # test deprecation warning for 'paths' argument
+        msg = ("The 'paths' argument will be deprecated in PyNWB 4.0 "
+            "Use 'path' instead. To migrate, call this function separately for "
+            "each path instead of passing a list.")
+        with self.assertWarnsWith(DeprecationWarning, msg):
+            results = validate(paths=['tests/back_compat/1.1.2_nwbfile.nwb',
+                                      'tests/back_compat/2.1.0_nwbfile_with_extension.nwb'],)
+        self.assertEqual(results, [])
+
+        # test specifying both 'paths' and 'path' arguments
+        expected_error = "Both 'paths' and 'path' were specified. Please choose only one."
+        with self.assertWarnsWith(DeprecationWarning, msg):
+            with self.assertRaisesWith(ValueError, expected_error):
+                validate(paths=['tests/back_compat/1.0.2_nwbfile.nwb'],
+                         path='tests/back_compat/1.0.2_nwbfile.nwb')