Word.ws English Dictionary

jugular

UK/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jʊl.ə//ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jəl.ɚ/

jugular adjective: relating to, or located near, the neck or throat. Also the ellipsis of jugular vein.

Adjective

jugular (not comparable)

  1. (relational) Relating to, or located near, the neck or throat.
    1. (relational) Of or pertaining to the jugular vein.
  2. Having ventral fins attached under the throat.
  3. (humorous, relational) Relating to juggling.

Noun

jugular (plural jugulars)

  1. (broadly, in plural, rare) Any critical vulnerability.
    • It was vicious; he went for the jugular.
    • One of Lionel's old Salthill friends with whom he exchanged perhaps a dozen words a year, and with whom he sometimes played squash, and tennis, both men killers on the court, seeking the jugular […].2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 83

Also used as

jugular is also the ellipsis of jugular vein.

Examples of jugular in a sentence

  • It quoted lawyers talking about pulling out all the stops, going for the jugular.
  • He was rejuvenated within a week, thanks to a diet of fresh claret direct from the jugular, while the lawyer slept.
  • Sorkin and Boyle don’t go for the jugular.

All 12 example sentences with jugular

Forms of jugular

Adjective
alternative form (obsolete)jugulary
Noun
pluraljugulars

Origin of jugular

Late 16th century borrowing from Late Latin jugulāris, from jugulum (“the collarbone; the hollow part of the neck above the collarbone; the throat”) + -āris (“-ar, -ary”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to jugulum + -ar.

Words formed from jugular

Phrases with jugular

4 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with jugular

Questions about jugular

What does jugular mean?
Jugular means relating to, or located near, the neck or throat.
What part of speech is jugular?
Jugular can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce jugular?
Jugular is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.jʊl.ə/ (UK).

Words near jugular in the dictionary

  1. jugriggers
  2. jugs
  3. jugsful
  4. Juguang
  5. jugula
  6. jugular
  7. jugular foramen
  8. jugular foramina
  9. jugular notch
  10. jugular notches
  11. jugular trunk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jugular (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-jugular.ogg, en-au-jugular.ogg.

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