Word of the Day

: July 22, 2021

guttural

adjective GUTT-uh-rul

What It Means

1 : articulated in the throat

2 : velar

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

guttural in Context

We asked the bouncer for directions, but he only responded with an inarticulate guttural grunt.

"And when you hear the strange guttural call of the Red Bellied Woodpecker, you wonder, who would respond to that weird sound?" — Joseph Palmer, The Brooklyn (New York) Eagle, 14 June 2021

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."