gullet
Americannoun
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the esophagus.
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the throat or pharynx.
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a channel for water.
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a gully or ravine.
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a preparatory cut in an excavation.
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a concavity between two sawteeth, joining them at their bases.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a less formal name for the oesophagus
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the throat or pharynx
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mining quarrying a preliminary cut in excavating, wide enough to take the vehicle that removes the earth
Etymology
Origin of gullet
1350–1400; Middle English golet < Old French goulet ≪ Latin gula throat; see -et
Explanation
Gullet is another name for the esophagus, the organ that food passes through on its way to the stomach. When you eat a cupcake, it moves from your mouth to your pharynx, and then to your gullet. The gullet is an important part of your digestive system, linking your mouth and stomach, and also one of the earliest steps in the digestive process. Muscles in the gullet contract and relax, helping to push food along, a process that's called peristalsis. Gullet comes from the Old French golet, "neck of a bottle," from the Latin gula, "throat."
Vocabulary lists containing gullet
The Odyssey
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The Sea of Monsters
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The War That Saved My Life
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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.
Since the flare from J2245+3743 is still visible, astronomers believe the black hole is in mid-meal, "like a fish only halfway down the whale's gullet," Graham says.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2025
That would be the mass equivalent of 370 suns a year disappearing down a cosmic gullet 11 billion years ago at the dawn of time.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
The birds swallowed the franks whole, straight down the gullet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2022
Unlike other birds, the male bittern does not use its voice box but muscles around his windpipe to expand his entire gullet into an echo chamber.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2022
When he felt it was safe, the dragon tore at the sheep’s flesh with his teeth, leaning his head back and coaxing the meat down his gullet.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
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.
