Go to or goto?
go to is an adjective meaning “Desired; desirable; of choice”; goto is a noun meaning “Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution”. Use go to as an adjective and goto as a noun (go to is also a noun: “A person or thing that is one’s usual choice”). go to is written as two words and goto as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between go to and goto?
| go to | goto | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | Desired; desirable; of choice Reliable; likely to perform in difficult circumstances A person or thing that is one’s usual choice | Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution To reach (a point in a program) by means of a GOTO instruction |
| Example | Cheesecake is my go-to food whenever I feel down | The setjmp/longjmp facility in C is essentially a GOTO |
| Forms | none | gotos |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɡoʊˌtu/ | /ˈɡəʊ.tuː/ /ˈɡoʊ.tu/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 1.2 times per million words |
Sources: go to and goto in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of go to and goto
go to
- 1
Desired; desirable; of choice
Cheesecake is my go-to food whenever I feel down
- 2
A person or thing that is one’s usual choice
Going for a drink after work is usually my go-to
- 3
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, to
All the jewelry went to her heirs
- 4
The branching construct GOTO
- 5
Reliable; likely to perform in difficult circumstances
Smith is your go-to person if you want lasting results
- 6
To attend an event or a sight
We went to a concert for my birthday
- 7
To attend classes at a school as a student
He went to the University of Kansas for almost two years before he dropped out
- 8
To tend to support
The study goes to the point I was making earlier about subsidies
goto
- 1
Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution
The setjmp/longjmp facility in C is essentially a GOTO
- 2
To reach (a point in a program) by means of a GOTO instruction
- 3
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
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, go to or goto?
go to is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; goto 1.2 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).