juggernaut
/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ɚ.nɔt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.99 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.
noun
An institution that incites destructive devotion or to which people are carelessly sacrificed.
Example Sentences
- "[…] poor Johnny Tetterby staggering under his Moloch of an infant, the Juggernaut that crushes all his enjoyments."
- "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 heath-keeper, too, and the man in drab raging at him. He felt an awful fool, a- -what was it?--a juggins, ah!--a Juggernaut."
- "McCarthy will point to their bad luck but the statistics now show that Wolves have lost four league matches and have claimed one point from a possible 15 - so it may prove to be another difficult season for the Midlands side. In contrast, the Newcastle juggernaut rolls on."
- "The fact that the juggernaut of Indian English rolls inexorably on, largely unconcerned by the academic arguments taking place about it, is in itself an indicator of an endonormative force in the variety, and this can be traced historically."
- "It’s always fun when something massive comes along and sweeps the board, giving everything else a thoroughly good kicking – think Titanic, The Silence of the Lambs, or Lord of the Rings. There’s a sort of deranged, gluttonous feeling, a perverse glee in seeing so many dreams trampled on by a massive cultural juggernaut."
- "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."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ, ज॒ग॒न्ना॒थ
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ɚ.nɔt/
- British English: /ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/
Usage
- British usage
- Derogatory
- Archaic