juggler
Americannoun
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jugglers
plural
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a person who performs juggling feats, as with balls or knives.
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a person who deceives by trickery; trickster.
noun
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a person who juggles, esp a professional entertainer
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a person who fraudulently manipulates facts or figures
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of juggler
before 1100; Middle English jogelour, jogeler, jugelour < Anglo-French jogelour, jugelur, Old French jogleor, jougleor ( see jongleur) ≪ Latin joculātor joker, equivalent to joculā ( rī ) ( see juggle) + -tor -tor; replacing Old English gēogelere magician, cognate with German Gaukler, both directly < Latin, as above
Explanation
A juggler is someone who can toss and catch several objects at once, always keeping at least one of them in the air at any given moment. If you want to become a juggler, try juggling tennis balls instead of fiery torches. Watching a juggler perform can be awe-inspiring, especially if she's juggling knives or some other dangerous set of objects. You can become a juggler simply by learning to juggle, and professional jugglers can work for circuses or perform for money at festivals and street fairs. Juggler, jester, and wizard all once shared a meaning as well as a root, the Old English geogelere, "magician or conjurer."
Vocabulary lists containing juggler
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When a juggler dropped the ball, literally, he played it off with a joke.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Dating back to the late 18th century, “hoax” seems to derive from what a conjurer or juggler might say, a truncation of “hocus pocus,” utilized to divert the attention of an audience.
From Salon ● Dec. 28, 2025
There was a rock band, strobe lights, and a juggler.
From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2025
That magnificence overpowers everything that went before it, which includes fabulous dance, arresting puppetry and outstanding singing actors, including Kang Wang, as Monkey, an impressive juggler in his own right.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
Charles was already good friends with one of the Wedgwood children, Hensleigh, the juggler of children and boxes.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
She’s been in town rehearsing for a few weeks and jokes with some of the show’s jugglers in a kitchenette, where she makes herself a machine pod coffee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
Circus Abyssinia: Tulu, a new production from the Ethiopian troupe of aerialists and jugglers, has a noon matinee at the New Victory Theater.
From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2022
"Something we have seen is the disappearance of performers due to the bins overflowing. Normally the Grassmarket would be full of performers and jugglers."
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2022
These settings are sometimes populated by characters — clowns, jugglers, harlequins and the like — familiar to theater from Italian commedia dell’arte.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2022
Along with the stifling crowds, there were jugglers and swordsmen and curio sellers and camels lumbering under the weight of tourists in starched suits and petticoats.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
