guttural
adjective
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Get your mind out of the gutter. Despite appearances, guttural is not related to the English word gutter; that word comes ultimately from the Latin verb gutta, meaning “drop,” while guttural has a different Latin root: the noun guttur, meaning “throat.” Since the late 1500s guttural has been used to describe sounds that are formed or pronounced in the throat, from cries and sobs to howls and grunts. A second sense, describing sounds or utterances which strike the listener as harsh or disagreeable (as in “the guttural roar of a motorcycle engine disturbed the afternoon’s quiet”) followed. A new sense appears to be developing as well, describing things that are instinctively or deeply felt irrespective of grunts or noises from the throat, as in “a guttural response/reaction,” but this sense has yet to meet the criteria for inclusion in our dictionary.
Examples of guttural in a Sentence
Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Dec. 2024
Join a group of sorority sisters who, after receiving an ominous phone call consisting of disturbing voices and guttural animal sounds the night of their Christmas party, begin to disappear one by one.
—Brooke Knisley, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2024
We are all once removed from being hit by this on a guttural level, and so for Franco’s character to be both feeling it ideologically and personally at the same time felt true to us, and felt like that would justify what happens [to him in the end].
—Ronda Racha Penrice, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Dec. 2024
But this time, their guttural pleas followed the killing last week by Israeli forces of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
—Dina Kraft, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for guttural 
Dictionary Entries Near guttural
Cite this Entry
“Guttural.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guttural. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.
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guttural
adjective
Medical Definition
guttural
adjective
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