Goldilocks

adjective

: having or producing an optimal balance usually between two extremes

While Davis is willing to buy into companies that are cutting dividends, his real focus is Goldilocks stocks, whose yields are neither too high nor too low.

—David K. Randall

At the right time he lay on his surfboard looking over his shoulder searching for what he calls a "Goldilocks wave," one that is just right.

—Paul Doherty et al.

… the idea behind the theory is that we all have a baseline state called homeostasis, a Goldilocks setting when we're not too happy or sad—just going through life.

—Katherine Ellen Foley

specifically, astronomy : lying in or being an area of planetary orbit in which temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to support life

The planet is smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard-to-find place that's not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, doesn't freeze or boil.

—The Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts)

… with nearly 500 exoplanets under their belts, astronomers still haven't found an Earth-size planet in a star's habitable zone—also known as the Goldilocks region, where things are not too hot, not too cold, but just right for life.

—Michael D. Lemonick

Not all stars of course, are likely to have planets, especially what researchers call "Goldilocks" planets—not too hot and not too cold for life. And not all life is likely to be intelligent.

—Mike Toner

Did you know?

English has always drawn inspiration from fables and fairy tales, stories bursting with metaphors that help users get their verbiage just right: one may fall down a rabbit hole (thank you, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), cry wolf (we see you, Aesop's Fables), or hope one day to meet one's Prince Charming (brava, Cinderella). The adjective Goldilocks is borrowed, of course, from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a perennial favorite in which a little girl so-named for her golden hair finds the perfect balance between hot and cold, soft and hard, small and large—all in the home of unknowing strangers. Since the mid-1960s, English speakers have applied Goldilocks to all things regarded as perfectly balanced or happily medium. The word has specific applications in astronomy, with the phrase "Goldilocks zone" designating an area of planetary orbit in which temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to support life.

Examples of Goldilocks in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

SARS‑CoV‑2 is something of an anti-Goldilocks virus: just bad enough in every way. —Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 3 Aug. 2020

Word History

Etymology

from the character Goldilocks in the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," who chooses Baby Bear's chair, porridge, and bed (over Papa and Mama Bear's) because it is "just right"

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for Goldilocks

• aftershocks
• chatterbox
• chickenpox
• equinox
• firebox
• hollyhocks
• interlocks
• orthodox
• paradox
• tomahawks
• balks
• blocks

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