jargon

Syllables: jar·gonUK/ˈdʒɑː.ɡən//ˈd͡ʒɑɹ.ɡən/

jargon noun: a technical terminology unique to a particular subject. Also the alternative form of jargoon.

Noun

jargon (countable and uncountable, plural jargons)

(uncountable) A technical terminology unique to a particular subject.
- He used technical jargon but I managed to catch the drift of his argument.
- Sometimes it pays to overcomplicate your simple messages. Make a list of ten-dollar words, scientific terms, and obscure niblets of jargon and find ways to use them. Your reputation and authority will soar.2018 June 13, Michael Schein, “Author Simon Sinek Is Full Of Hot Air (And Other Reasons You Should Follow His Lead)”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 13 Jul 2020
(countable) A language characteristic of a particular group.
- They [the Normans] abandoned their native speech, and adopted the French tongue, in which Latin was the predominant element. They speedily raised their new language to a dignity and importance which it had never before possessed. They found it a barbarous jargon; they fixed it in writing; and they...1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 11
- In fact all the competing theories have developed their own specialized jargons and have a tendency to be difficult to penetrate.2014, Ian Hodder, Archaeological Theory Today
Synonyms:

argot, cant, intalk, lingo
(uncountable) Speech or language that is incomprehensible or unintelligible; gibberish.
- Cut the jargon and get to your point.

Verb

jargon (third-person singular simple present jargons, present participle jargoning, simple past and past participle jargoned)

To utter jargon; to emit confused or unintelligible sounds.
- Human ill-nature needs but some Homoiousian iota, or even the pretence of one; and will flow copiously through the eye of a needle: thus always must mortals go jargoning and fuming […].1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (Varennes)
- Prussian Trenck, the poor subterranean Baron, jargons and jangles in an unmelodious manner.1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Fatherland in Danger”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book III (The Girondins), page 184

Also used as

jargon is also the alternative form of jargoon.

jargon meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malay and Indonesian

jargon in Hindi

technical terminology unique to a particular subject: शब्दावली śabdāvlī
language characteristic of a particular group: शब्दावली śabdāvlī

jargon in Bengali

জার্গন

jargon in Malay

technical terminology unique to a particular subject: jargon

jargon in Indonesian

technical terminology unique to a particular subject: jargon

More languagesFewer languages

jargon in Vietnamese: biệt ngữ

Examples of jargon in a sentence

They found it a barbarous jargon; they fixed it in writing; and they employed it in legislation, in poetry, and in romance.1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown...
[T]he noisy jay, / Jargoning like a foreigner at his food; […]1863 November 23, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Poet’s Tale. The Birds of Killingworth.”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass....

All 40 example sentences with jargon

Synonyms of jargon

Antonyms

vernacular

All synonyms and antonyms of jargon

Forms of jargon

Noun
plural	jargons
Verb
third-person singular present	jargons
present participle	jargoning
past participle	jargoned
past	jargoned

Plural of jargon: jargons

Origin of jargon

From Middle English jargoun, jargon, from Old French jargon, a variant of gargon, gargun (“chatter; talk; language”).

Words formed from jargon

Phrases with jargon

Words that rhyme with jargon

Questions about jargon

What does jargon mean?: Jargon means a technical terminology unique to a particular subject.
What is jargon in Hindi?: Jargon in Hindi is शब्दावली (śabdāvlī). See Jargon meaning in Hindi.
How do you use jargon in a sentence?: They found it a barbarous jargon; they fixed it in writing; and they employed it in legislation, in poetry, and in romance.
What part of speech is jargon?: Jargon can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce jargon?: Jargon is pronounced /ˈdʒɑː.ɡən/ (UK).
What is the plural of jargon?: The plural of jargon is jargons.

Words near jargon in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: jargon (page history and authors); jargon (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-jargon.ogg.

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