DictionaryAI

juggernaut

JUG-er-nawt/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ɚ.nɔt/UKJUG-uh-nawt/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/

Pluraljuggernauts

4 meanings of juggernaut

Practice

  1. 1
    unstoppable forcenouncountable
    A thing or force that seems impossible to stop and crushes everything in its way.

    Like a giant snowball rolling down a hill, knocking down everything it hits.

    Our school's soccer team was a juggernaut this year and beat everyone.

    Small shops could not compete with the online shopping juggernaut.

    Similarpowerhouse, behemoth, colossus, steamroller

    Note
  2. 2
    big trucknounderogatoryBritishIrelandcountable
    A very big, awkward truck, especially the kind where a front section pulls a trailer.

    A juggernaut got stuck on the narrow bridge outside the village.

    A juggernaut thundered past on the motorway, shaking our little car.

    Similarlorry, truck

    Note
  3. 3
    cruel systemnouncountable
    An organization or system that people serve with harmful loyalty, or that carelessly uses up people's lives.

    She worked eighty hours a week for the juggernaut of the law firm until she got sick.

    Thousands of young men were sent off to die for the juggernaut of the empire.

    Similarmachine

    Note

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    proper noun
    The Hindu god Krishna, thought of as a form of the god Vishnu.

Practice

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Origin

It comes, through Hindi and Odia, from a Sanskrit name meaning "Lord of the Universe," a name for the Hindu god Krishna. In India, people pull a huge wagon with his statue in a yearly parade, and once it moves it is very hard to stop.