goalie

In sports like soccer (football) and hockey, goalie is an informal name for the goalkeeper, the player positioned in front of the goal whose job is to prevent the ball or puck from entering it (or crossing the goal line).

Goalie can be used to refer to the position or the player. A goalie might say they play goalie. 

The position is usually officially called goalkeeper or goaltender, but goalie is very commonly used, especially in youth sports. In soccer, the goalkeeper is also sometimes called the keeper.

Example: When I played soccer, I was the goalie, and I was pretty good, especially because I was quick and had long arms for my age.

The first records of the word goalie come from the 1920s. The suffix -ie is a variant of the suffix –y and is used to make words more informal, such as in doggie and biggie.

In a lot of sports, the object of the game is to get the ball or puck into the goal. And in most of those sports, there is someone there to guard the goal and try to prevent that from happening: the goalie. Soccer, ice hockey, field hockey, and lacrosse are some of the sports that have goalies. In these sports, players are typically not allowed to touch the ball or puck with their hands, with the exception of the goalie (under certain circumstances). Goalies usually stay right in front of the goal in order to block shots by the opposing team. They’re often known for their quickness and agility. Because they have to stand in the way of hard projectiles, goalies in ice hockey, field hockey, and lacrosse usually wear a mask and other padded equipment.

What are some synonyms for goalie?

• keeper
• goalkeeper
• goaltender

What are some words that share a root or word element with goalie? 

• goal
• goal line
• doggie
• biggie
• rookie

What are some words that often get used in discussing goalie?

• soccer
• football
• hockey
• ice hockey
• field hockey
• lacrosse
• position
• mask
• gloves

Goalkeepers are very commonly called goalies. But the term is almost never used as an official name of a position.

Goalie: "coach, how do I improve my save %?"
Coach: "1. Make more saves. 2. Have your dad run the shot clock"
😎👍

— Matthew Wilkinson (@mrwilks88) May 30, 2020

“You get out there for the first time in a couple months, you kind of have to reteach yourself how to play goalie. But it comes back quick. By the end of the first ice time, I was feeling pretty normal.” https://t.co/iSauMcMk9C via @NHLdotcom

— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) June 18, 2020

There’s disrespect, then there’s scoring with your goalie in fifa

— Bay Smith (@baibaismith) June 19, 2019

Is goalie used correctly in the following sentence?

Our team needs a goalie—can you play?