Goals refers to a result that one is attempting to achieve. It commonly describes in many sports, an area into which the players attempt to put an object, the act of placing the object into the goal, and a point scored in a game as a result of placing the object into the goal, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to 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 and to score a goal, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Goals as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Goals therefore works well as a quotation category because it can hold direct statements about the subject, figurative uses that borrow its meaning, and broader reflections that stay anchored to the same central idea.
