goal
pronunciation
How to pronounce goal in British English:
UK [ɡəʊl]
How to pronounce goal in American English:
US [ɡoʊl]
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- Noun:
- the state of affairs that a plan is intended to achieve and that (when achieved) terminates behavior intended to achieve it
- a successful attempt at scoring
- game equipment consisting of the place toward which players of a game try to advance a ball or puck in order to score points
- the place designated as the end (as of a race or journey)
Word Origin
- goal
- goal: [16] The earliest examples of what can confidently be identified as the word goal come from the first half of the 16th century, when it was used for both the ‘finishing line of a race’ and the ‘posts through which the ball is sent in football’. Before that we are in the realm of speculation. A 14th-century text from Kent has the word gol ‘boundary’, which could quite plausibly be the ancestor of the 16th-century goal, and gol suggest an Old English *gāl.No such word has come down to us, but the Old English verb gǣlan ‘hinder’, which looks as though it could have been related to a noun *gāl, indicates that if it existed it might have meant ‘obstacle, barrier’ (which would lead on quite logically through ‘boundary’ and ‘finishing line’ to ‘something to be aimed at’).
- goal (n.)
- 1530s, "end point of a race," of uncertain origin. It appears once before this (as gol), in a poem from early 14c. and with an apparent sense of "boundary, limit." Perhaps from Old English *gal "obstacle, barrier," a word implied by gælan "to hinder" and also found in compounds (singal, widgal). That would make it a variant or figurative use of Middle English gale "a way, course." Also compare Old Norse geil "a narrow glen, a passage." Or from Old French gaule "long pole, stake," which is from Germanic. Sports sense of "place where the ball, etc. is put to score" is attested from 1540s. Figurative sense of "object of an effort" is from 1540s.
Antonym
Example
- 1. It is a long term goal .
- 2. Your goal is to provide valuable resources to customers .
- 3. The game ended with a dramatic last minute 's goal .
- 4. Something like tennis 's hawk-eye system could work for monitoring the goal line at least .
- 5. Set a deadline for each goal .