Word of the Day

: January 13, 2011

guttural

adjective GUTT-uh-rul

What It Means

1 : articulated in the throat

2 : formed with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate

3 : being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable

guttural in Context

The only response we could get from him was an inarticulate guttural grunt.

"Four thuggish-looking Klingons, sporting gnarled foreheads and robed regalia and clutching spears and scimitars, looked on as the two 'Hamlet' renditions were performed side by side -- a minute or two of the grating, guttural Klingon version, followed by a minute or two of the English one." -- From a theater review by Celia Wren in The Washington Post, September 27, 2010

Did You Know?

Though it is now used to describe many sounds or utterances which strike the listener as harsh or disagreeable, the adjective "guttural" was originally applied only to sounds and utterances produced in the throat. This is reflected in the word's Latin root -- "guttur," meaning "throat." Despite the similarity in sound, "guttural" is not related to the English word "gutter," which comes (by way of Anglo-French) from Latin "gutta," meaning "drop."