juggernaut
/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/
juggernaut · name — jagannath, the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna. It carries an Arena rating of 1888, earned across 65 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, juggernaut ranks #15 of 17,128 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #29 of 17,106 for Most Storied Words, #76 of 42,820 for Qualifying, #99 of 17,136 for Most Malleable Words.
juggernaut is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/.
Why “juggernaut” is a great word
A massive, overpowering, and seemingly unstoppable force, institution, or object that crushes or destroys whatever is in its path. From Hindi *Jagannāth*, from Sanskrit *Jagannāthaḥ*, from *jagat* ("world") + *nātha* ("lord, master"), literally "lord of the world," a title of Krishna; the English sense of a crushing force developed in the mid-19th century from accounts of the large, heavy carts (raths) used in processions of the deity's image. Unlike a "behemoth," which primarily denotes immense size, or a "colossus," which stands as a monument, a juggernaut is defined by its remorseless, rolling progress. It is the relentless advance of an army, the market-share devouring corporation, and the deafening, earth-shaking parade float moving on wheels taller than a man—an idol of pure momentum before which all things must yield or be crushed.
❧ Written by Lexicurio’s AI
name
- Jagannath, the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna.e.g.“'...for this girl, this child, the native of a Christian Land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut - this girl is - a liar!'” — 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter VII, in Jane Eyre:
noun
- A literal or metaphorical force or object regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path.e.g.“[…] 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:
- A large, cumbersome truck or lorry, especially an articulated lorry.e.g.“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:
- An institution that incites destructive devotion or to which people are carelessly sacrificed.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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