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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 *dArg'h- (fenced lot). Akin to Old High German zarga (side wall, rim) (German Zarge (frame)).



target (plural targets)

    Take careful aim at the target.
  2. A goal or objective.
    They have a target to finish the project by November.
    • 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act II, Scene IV, line 200,
  4. (obsolete) A shield resembling the Roman scutum. In modern usage, a smaller variety of shield is usually implied by this term.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22,
      The target or buckler was carried by the heavy armed foot, it answered to the scutum of the Romans; its form was sometimes that of a rectangular parallelogram, but more commonly had its bottom rounded off; it was generally convex, being curved in its breadth.
  5. (sports) The pattern or arrangement of a series of hits made by a marksman on a butt or mark.
    He made a good target.
  6. (surveying) The sliding crosspiece, or vane, on a leveling staff.
  7. (rail transport) A conspicuous disk attached to a switch lever to show its position, or for use as a signal.
  8. (cricket) the number of runs that the side batting last needs to score in the final innings in order to win
  9. (linguistics) The tenor of a metaphor.
  10. (translation studies) The translated version of a document, or the language into which translation occurs.
    Do you charge by source or target?
  11. A person (or group of people) that a person or organization is trying to employ or to have as a customer, audience etc.

Derived terms[edit]


Coordinate terms[edit]

  • (translated version): source




target (third-person singular simple present targets, present participle targeting or targetting, simple past and past participle targeted or targetted)

  1. (transitive) To aim something, especially a weapon, at (a target).
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To aim for as an audience or demographic.
    The advertising campaign targeted older women.
  3. (transitive, computing) To produce code suitable for.
    This cross-platform compiler can target any of several processors.


See also[edit]