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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

target.

A butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɑː.ɡɪt/Received-Pronunciation[ˈtʰɑː.ɡɪt]Received-Pronunciation[ˈtʰɑː.ɡɪt̚]Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɑɹ.ɡɪt/Canada, General-American
  1. A butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile.

    Take careful aim at the target.
  2. A goal or objective.

    They have a target to finish the project by November.
  3. An object of criticism or ridicule.

  4. A person, place, or thing that is frequently attacked, criticized, or ridiculed.

  5. A kind of shield: A kind of small shield or buckler, used as a defensive weapon in war.

  6. A kind of shield: A shield resembling the Roman scutum, larger than the modern buckler.

    obsolete
  7. A kind of shield: A bearing representing a buckler.

  8. The pattern or arrangement of a series of hits made by a marksman on a butt or mark.

    He made a good target.
  9. The sliding crosspiece, or vane, on a leveling staff.

  10. A conspicuous disk attached to a switch lever to show its position, or for use as a signal.

  11. the number of runs that the side batting last needs to score in the final innings in order to win

  12. The tenor of a metaphor.

  13. The codomain of a function; the object at which a morphism points.

  14. The translated version of a document, or the language into which translation occurs.

    Do you charge by source or target?
  15. A person (or group of people) that a person or organization is trying to employ or to have as a customer, audience etc.

  16. A thin cut; a slice; specifically, of lamb, a piece consisting of the neck and breast joints.

    UK · dated
  17. A tassel or pendant.

    Scotland · obsolete
  18. A shred; a tatter.

    Scotland · obsolete
  19. A system or platform for which software is developed.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French targette, targuete, diminutive of targe (“light shield”), from Old French, from Frankish *targa (“buckler”), akin to Old Norse targa (“small round shield”) (whence also Old English targe, targa (“shield”)) from Proto-Germanic *targǭ (“edge”), from Proto-Indo-European *derǵʰ- (“fenced lot”). Akin to Old High German zarga (“side wall, rim”) (German Zarge (“frame”)), Spanish tarjeta (“card”).

verb/ˈtɑː.ɡɪt/Received-Pronunciation[ˈtʰɑː.ɡɪt]Received-Pronunciation[ˈtʰɑː.ɡɪt̚]Received-Pronunciation/ˈtɑɹ.ɡɪt/Canada, General-American
  1. To aim something, especially a weapon, at (a target).

    transitive
  2. To aim for as an audience or demographic.

    figuratively · transitive
    The advertising campaign targeted older women.
  3. To produce code suitable for.

    transitive
    This cross-platform compiler can target any of several processors.
Where this word comes from

From Middle French targette, targuete, diminutive of targe (“light shield”), from Old French, from Frankish *targa (“buckler”), akin to Old Norse targa (“small round shield”) (whence also Old English targe, targa (“shield”)) from Proto-Germanic *targǭ (“edge”), from Proto-Indo-European *derǵʰ- (“fenced lot”). Akin to Old High German zarga (“side wall, rim”) (German Zarge (“frame”)), Spanish tarjeta (“card”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.