goal

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See also: Goal

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

From Middle English gol (“boundary, limit”), from Old English *gāl (“obstacle, barrier, marker”), suggested by its derivatives Old English gǣlan (“to hinder, delay, impede, keep in suspense, linger, hesitate, dupe”), and hyġegǣls (“hesitating, slow, sluggish”), hyġegǣlsa (“slow one, sluggish one”). Possibly cognate with Lithuanian gãlas (“end”), Latvian gals (“end”), Old Prussian gallan (“death”), Albanian ngalem (“to be limping, lame, paralyzed”), ngel (“to remain, linger, hesitate, get stuck”).

Pronunciation

Noun

goal (plural goals)

  1. A result that one is attempting to achieve.
    My lifelong goal is to get into a Hollywood movie.
    She failed in her goal to become captain of the team.
    • 2013 November 2, “A shrinking slice”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8860:
      The goal should be to strengthen workers without hamstringing firms. Growth, rather than employment protection, is the priority. More work means a stronger labour market, which would bid up employees’ slice, as it did in America in the 1990s when unemployment was at record lows.
  2. (sports) In many sports, an area into which the players attempt to put an object.
    fans behind the goal
    play in goal
  3. (sports) The act of placing the object into the goal.
    miss a goal
    concede a goal
    let in a goal
  4. A point scored in a game as a result of placing the object into the goal.
    score a goal
    • 2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2-1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport:
      The former Forest man, who passed a late fitness test, appeared to use Guy Moussi for leverage before nodding in David Fox's free-kick at the far post - his 22nd goal of the season.
  5. (linguistics, grammar) A noun or noun phrase that receives the action of a verb. The subject of a passive verb or the direct object of an active verb. Also called a patient, target, or undergoer.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Pages starting with “goal”.

Descendants

Descendants

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

goal (third-person singular simple present goals, present participle goaling, simple past and past participle goaled)

  1. (Gaelic football, Australian rules football) To score a goal.

Translations

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowing from English goal.

Pronunciation

Noun

goal m (plural goals, diminutive goaltje n)

  1. goal, target in sports, especially soccer
  2. a hit in it, a point scored

Synonyms

Derived terms

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English goal.

Pronunciation

Noun

goal m (plural goals)

  1. goalkeeper especially in soccer and polo
    Synonyms: gardien de but, gardien m, portier m
  2. (rare) target in those sports
    Synonym: but m

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English goal.

Noun

goal m (invariable)

  1. Alternative spelling of gol

Anagrams

Manx

Etymology

From Middle Irish gall (“foreigner”), from Latin Gallus.

Noun

goal m (genitive singular goal, plural goallyn or goaldee)

  1. Scottish lowlander
  2. foreigner

Related terms

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
goal ghoal ngoal
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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