juggernaut
UK/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt//ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ɚ.nɔt/
juggernaut noun: a literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.
Noun
juggernaut (plural juggernauts)
- A literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.
- […] poor Johnny Tetterby staggering under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut that crushes all his enjoyments.1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC
- Anon Mr. Hoopdriver found himself riding out of the darkness of non-existence, pedalling Ezekiel's Wheels across the Weald of Surrey, jolting over the hills and smashing villages in his course, while the other man in brown cursed and swore at him and shouted to stop his career. There was the Putney...1895, H. G. Wells, chapter XII, in The Wheels of Chance
- A large, cumbersome truck or lorry, especially an articulated lorry.
- Silently and gracefully I free-wheeled across the path of three juggernauts, [...] glided across the hard shoulder and came to rest halfway up a grass bank.1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 78
- I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know.2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh
- An institution that incites destructive devotion or to which people are carelessly sacrificed.
Proper noun capitalized: Juggernaut
Juggernaut
juggernaut meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
juggernaut in Hindi
- जगन्नाथ
juggernaut in Tamil
- ஜக்கர்நாட்
juggernaut in Marathi
- जगर्नाट
juggernaut in Urdu
- جگن ناتھ
More languagesFewer languages
- juggernaut in Bengali
- দূরপাল্লার বিশাল যানবাহন, হিন্দু দেবতা জগন্নাথ
- juggernaut in Telugu
- జగ్గర్నాట్
- juggernaut in Malayalam
- ജഗ്ഗർനോട്ട്, ജഗ്ഗർനൌട്ട്, ജഗ്ഗർനാറ്റ്
- juggernaut in Kannada
- ಮೋಟಾರು ವಾಹನ, ಬೃಹತ್ತಾದ ವಿನಾಶಕಾರೀ ಶಕ್ತಿ, ಬಲ್ಮೆ, ತಡೆಹಿಡಿಯಲಾಗದ ಅಳವು
- juggernaut in Punjabi
- ਜੱਗਰਨੌਟ, ਜੁਗਰਨੌਟ, ਜਗਰਨੌਟ
- juggernaut in Gujarati
- જગર્નાટ, જગર્નોટ, જગર્નૉટ
- juggernaut in Odia
- ଜଗର୍ନାଟ୍, ଜାଗର୍ନାଟ୍, ଜଗର୍ନାଟ
- juggernaut in Nepali
- जगर्नाट, जग्गर्नाट, जगर्नाउट
- juggernaut in Arabic
- طَاغُوت ṭāḡūt, جِبْت jibt
Examples of juggernaut in a sentence
- He felt an awful fool, a- -what was it?--a juggins, ah!--a Juggernaut.1895, H. G. Wells, chapter XII, in The Wheels of Chance:
- There’s a sort of deranged, gluttonous feeling, a perverse glee in seeing so many dreams trampled on by a massive cultural juggernaut.2015 February 23, “Oscars 2015: 10 things we learned”, in The Guardian (London):
Forms of juggernaut
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | juggernauts |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Jaganaut |
| alternative form | Jagarynat |
| alternative form | Jagganaut |
| alternative form | Jaggernaut |
| alternative form | Jagnaut |
| alternative form | Juggurnaut |
Origin of juggernaut
Borrowed in the 17th century into British English in India, either through Hindustani جَگَنَّاتھ (jagannāth) / जगन्नाथ (jagannāth) or directly from Odia ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ (jagannātha), ultimately from Sanskrit ज॒ग॒न्ना॒थ (jagannāthá, “lord of universe”) (Jagannatha), a title for the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna. The sense comes from witnessing the Rath Yatra (chariot parade) at Puri, Odisha, a huge annual procession which features a wagon of the idol of Jagannath; pulled with ropes by hundreds of devotees, the wagon develops considerable momentum and becomes unstoppable. The r was not originally pronounced: for non-rhotic dialects of British English, the spelling with -er- accurately suggests the Hindi-Urdu pronunciation of the second vowel (a schwa ə); compare e.g. gorm. The spelling of the ending was influenced by the suffix -naut (“traveller, voyager”). Doublet of Jagannath.
See juggernaut.
Words formed from juggernaut
Questions about juggernaut
- What does juggernaut mean?
- Juggernaut means a literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.
- What is juggernaut in Hindi?
- Juggernaut in Hindi is जगन्नाथ. See Juggernaut meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use juggernaut in a sentence?
- He felt an awful fool, a- -what was it?--a juggins, ah!--a Juggernaut.
- What part of speech is juggernaut?
- Juggernaut can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce juggernaut?
- Juggernaut is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of juggernaut?
- The plural of juggernaut is juggernauts.
Words near juggernaut in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: juggernaut (page history and authors); Juggernaut (page history and authors); juggernaut (Hindi Wiktionary) (page history and authors); juggernaut (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); juggernaut (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); juggernaut (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); juggernaut (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); juggernaut (Nepali, 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-juggernaut.ogg, en-au-juggernaut.ogg.
Cite this entry: “juggernaut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/juggernaut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.