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goto

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GOTO¹

  • /ˈɡəʊ.tuː/ UK
  • /ˈɡoʊ.tu/ US

Where it comes from

From go to, a keyword for this purpose in many programming languages.

noun GOTOs

  1. Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution. The setjmp/longjmp facility in C is essentially a GOTO.

verb GOTOs · GOTOing · GOTOed

  1. To reach (a point in a program) by means of a GOTO instruction. If we were GOTOed from 310 we GOTO 320.

goto²

noun gotos

  1. Alternative letter-case form of GOTO Overall, experience in the two decades that followed the publication of Dijkstra's letter showed the folly of producing goto-laden code.

Goto³

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Japanese 後藤 (Gotō).

proper noun Gotos

  1. A surname from Japanese.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: go to, jump, label, fall-through, backjump, spaghetti code, control structure, gadget, return-oriented programming, call, load-and-go, trampoline, kangaroo code, backjumping, spaghetti, detour

Translations

Every language

noun Translations

DeutschGOTO, GOTO-Anweisung, GOTO-Befehl

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"goto." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/goto. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

goto. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/goto

Chicago

"goto." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/goto.

BibTeX
@misc{goto_2026,
  title = {goto},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/goto},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}