goad

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

US /ˈɡoʊd/ UK /ˈɡəʊd/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like god /ɑ/ vs /oʊ/

Meanings

1

verb
to provoke or urge someone into action

His rivals tried to goad him into a reckless wager.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to provoke or urge someone... provoke prod spur incite prompt urge needle

Opposites

discourage dissuade deter restrain

Word family

Derived forms goadedgoading

Etymology

From Old English gād ('a spear-point, pointed stick for driving cattle'), from Proto-Germanic *gaidō, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'point, spike'.

gād Old English *gaidō Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Actions & Processes

External links

# goad

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈɡoʊd/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɡəʊd/

## Meanings
1. to provoke or urge someone into action

## Examples
- His rivals tried to goad him into a reckless wager.

## Synonyms
- provoke
- prod
- spur
- incite
- prompt
- urge
- needle

## Antonyms
- discourage
- dissuade
- deter
- restrain

## Derived Forms
- goaded
- goading

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: gād
- Root: *gaidō

## Etymology
From Old English gād ('a spear-point, pointed stick for driving cattle'), from Proto-Germanic *gaidō, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'point, spike'.

## AI Etymology
Goad comes from Old English gād ('a spear-point, pointed stick for driving cattle'), from Proto-Germanic *gaidō, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'point, spike'. The development is chiefly inherited within English and its older relatives, with the later form continuing material already present in the language's ancestry. In present use, it is used as a verb and noun meaning "to provoke or urge someone into action", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. The wider English family includes derivatives such as goaded and goading, showing how the same historical material continues to organize neighboring vocabulary. The named historical forms include Old English gād and Proto-Germanic *gaidō, keeping the history tied to concrete forms rather than a loose resemblance. Its semantic neighborhood is marked by provoke, prod, spur, and incite on one side and contrasts such as discourage, dissuade, and deter on the other, locating the modern specialization without adding a new origin story.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes

markdown