Word.ws English Dictionary

go-to

US/ˈɡoʊˌtu/

go-to adjective: desired; desirable; of choice.

Adjective

go-to (not comparable)

  1. Desired; desirable; of choice.
    • Cheesecake is my go-to food whenever I feel down.
    • The USA Network, let's face it, isn't anyone's go-to channel.2003 July 7, The New Yorker, page 78
  2. Reliable; likely to perform in difficult circumstances.
    • Smith is your go-to person if you want lasting results.
    • Trump resisted for many weeks. He called the Epstein story a “hoax,” his go-to move for maximally damaging accusations.2025 November 22, David Frum, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Came So Close to Getting the Joke”, in The Atlantic
    Synonyms:
    clutch

Noun

go-to (plural go-tos)

  1. A person or thing that is one’s usual choice.
    • Going for a drink after work is usually my go-to.

Examples of go-to in a sentence

  • For Donna Cona, who has played it since before the Times acquisition, Wordle has become her go-to thing each morning.2024 March 14, Saira Mueller, “Millions have played Wordle, but there’s more to the game than you’d expect”, in CNN:
  • Maybe I am the go-to nervous guy, who knows?2026 April 23, Rich Pelley, quoting Adam Scott, “Severance star Adam Scott: ‘There’s nothing wrong with being told that you resemble Tom...

Synonyms of go-to

Forms of go-to

pluralgo-tos

Origin of go-to

A univerbation of go + to. Compare typologically convenient, Russian подходя́щий (podxodjáščij) (<~ ходи́ть (xodítʹ)).

Phrases with go-to

Questions about go-to

What does go-to mean?
Go-to means desired; desirable; of choice.
How do you use go-to in a sentence?
For Donna Cona, who has played it since before the Times acquisition, Wordle has become her go-to thing each morning.
What part of speech is go-to?
Go-to can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce go-to?
Go-to is pronounced /ˈɡoʊˌtu/ (US).

Words near go-to in the dictionary

  1. go-slow
  2. go-slows
  3. go-stop
  4. go-team
  5. go-teams
  6. go-to
  7. go-to guy
  8. go-to guys
  9. go-to people
  10. go-to person
  11. go-to-hell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: go-to (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “go-to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/go-to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.