goaltender
noun
Simple meaning
A designated player that try to prevent the opposing team from scoring by protecting a goal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gohltenderSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡoʊltɛndɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
sports
A designated player that attempts to prevent the opposing team from scoring by protecting a goal.
sports
The defensive position on an ice hockey or soccer or lacrosse team who stands in front of the goal and tries to prevent opposing players from scoring
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A designated player that attempts to prevent the opposing team from scoring by protecting a goal.
Used this way, goaltender is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a sporting use: familiar to anyone who follows the game, and puzzling to anyone who does not.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Sports
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: designated player that attempts to prevent the opposing team from scoring by protecting a goal
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.