What Does Jungle Mean?
A jungle is a thick, tangled forest in a hot, wet place. Trees, vines and plants grow close together, and many animals live there.
It is a noun, and you can count it: one jungle, many jungles.
The explorer cut a path through the jungle.
Monkeys swung through the jungle trees.
🔊 Pronunciation
JUNG-gul
The stress is on the first part.
🗣️ Natural Examples
Monkeys, parrots and snakes live in the jungle.
We watched a film about a jungle adventure.
My bedroom is a jungle of toys.
The children climbed on the jungle gym.
It was hot and wet in the jungle.
🛠️ How to Use It
Jungle is a common word, and it can be used for real forests and for tangled places.
- Real meaning: a thick forest.
- Figurative meaning: any messy, tangled place, as in a jungle of wires.
- A jungle gym is playground climbing equipment in the US.
- People often use jungle and rainforest for similar places. Rainforest is the more exact word for a forest with a lot of rain.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- deep in the jungle
- a thick jungle
- jungle animals
- a jungle gym
- a jungle trek
- a jungle of
👯 Similar and Related Words
- rainforest: a tall, wet forest with a lot of rain.
- forest: a large area with many trees.
- woods: a smaller area of trees.
- wilderness: wild land with no people.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Jungle or jangle?
❌ We heard the jungle of keys.
✅ We heard the jangle of keys. (a metal sound)
Spelling. It is jung, not jang.
❌ junggle, jangle (for the forest)
✅ jungle
Jungle or rainforest? They are often used for similar places.
✅ A rainforest is the more exact word for a forest with a lot of rain.
✅ A jungle is a thick, tangled growth of plants.
💬 In a Conversation
Mia: My room is a jungle.
Sam: Are there any monkeys?
Mia: Only socks.
Sam: That is a very tangled jungle.
Mia: Tidy it, please, explorer.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
The word comes from Hindi jangal, which Etymonline glosses as "desert, forest, wasteland, uncultivated ground". Behind it is Sanskrit jangala, "arid, sparsely grown with trees". So the first meaning was about wild or uncultivated land, not always a thick rainforest.
English first recorded jungle in 1776, for the dense, tangled plants in parts of India. By 1849, English used it for other places overgrown with plants, and by 1850 for any wild, tangled mass.
Like Pajamas, jungle came into English from India.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Remember the Hindi word: jangal.
It meant wild land with no farms. English kept the word and gave it a leafy new job.