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
Brendan Connelly, Boston Herald, 23 Feb. 2026
Some of the city’s best restaurants and bars are both uptown and walkable, including breakfast juggernaut Cheeky’s and its adjacent pizza-pasta-patio hotspot Birba, farm-to-table fave Workshop, and cool cocktail den Tailor Shop.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Feb. 2026
Paul Thomas Anderson’s awards-season juggernaut One Battle After Another was the big winner at the Set Decorators Society of America‘s 2025 SDSA Awards, which were handed out Saturday.
—Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 21 Feb. 2026
What a victory, as Canada valiantly pushed the United States to the limit despite the fact that this juggernaut had shut out five opponents in a row and wound up 7-0, outscoring those seven teams an amazing 33-2.
—Michael Russo, New York Times, 20 Feb. 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 2 Mar. 2026.
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