jungle
Americannoun
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a wild land overgrown with dense vegetation, often nearly impenetrable, especially tropical vegetation or a tropical rainforest.
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a tract of such land.
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a wilderness of dense overgrowth; a piece of swampy, thickset forestland.
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any confused mass or agglomeration of objects; jumble.
a jungle of wrecked automobiles.
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something that baffles or perplexes; maze.
a jungle of legal double-talk.
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a scene of violence and struggle for survival.
The neglected prison was a jungle for its inmates.
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a place or situation of ruthless competition.
the advertising jungle.
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Slang.
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(in historical use) a hobo camp.
We found him by the campfire, with many similarly raggedy hobos in what is known as a jungle.
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any camp of unhoused individuals.
Law enforcement clears the jungle and tears down the temporary structures a few times each year, but people return and a new encampment always springs up.
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noun
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an equatorial forest area with luxuriant vegetation, often almost impenetrable
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any dense or tangled thicket or growth
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a place of intense competition or ruthless struggle for survival
the concrete jungle
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a type of fast electronic dance music, originating in the early 1990s, which combines elements of techno and ragga
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slang (esp in the Depression) a gathering place for the unemployed, etc
Other Word Forms
- jungled adjective
- jungly adjective
- underjungle noun
Etymology
Origin of jungle
First recorded in 1770–80; from Hindi jaṅgal, from Sanskrit jaṅgala “uncultivated land, dry land, waterless place”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
From watering days that involve a few hundred plants to ordering the latest rare species, his home in Malvern, Worcestershire, has turned into a jungle.
From BBC
Below the jungle lie diamonds, gold and coltan, a compound containing elements needed for cellphones, electric vehicles and more.
A jillion little game trails twisted their way through jungles of wild cane and matted masses of elder.
From Literature
INÍRIDA, Colombia—A few miles up the river from this border outpost, vast mineral riches are buried in the Venezuelan jungle.
It is becoming a home far away from home in the Sri Lankan jungle.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
