juggernaut
noun
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The History of Juggernaut
In the early 14th century, Franciscan missionary Friar Odoric brought to Europe the story of an enormous carriage that carried an image of the Hindu god Vishnu (whose title was Jagannāth, literally, "lord of the world") through the streets of India in religious processions. Odoric reported that some worshippers deliberately allowed themselves to be crushed beneath the vehicle's wheels as a sacrifice to Vishnu. That story was likely an exaggeration or misinterpretation of actual events, but it spread throughout Europe. The tale caught the imagination of English listeners, and they began using juggernaut to refer to any massive vehicle (such as a steam locomotive) and to any other enormous entity with powerful crushing capabilities. While the word is still used sometimes in British English to refer to a very large, heavy truck (also called a "juggernaut lorry"), juggernaut is more commonly used figuratively for a relentless force, entity, campaign, or movement, as in "a political/economic/cultural juggernaut."
Examples of juggernaut in a Sentence
Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 6 Apr. 2026
In a sign of the times, four of the six seniors started their careers at other schools, only to transfer to UCLA to form this juggernaut.
—Tim Rohan, NBC news, 6 Apr. 2026
What sufficed for drama down the stretch was whether May’s team would join Jerry Tarkanian’s 1990 UNLV juggernaut as only the second team to hit triple digits at the Final Four in the modern era.
—Eddie Pells, Chicago Tribune, 5 Apr. 2026
About the only drama down the stretch was whether May’s team would join Jerry Tarkanian’s 1990 Nevada Las Vegas juggernaut as only the second team to hit triple digits at the Final Four in the modern era.
—Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for juggernaut
Cite this Entry
“Juggernaut.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juggernaut. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.
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