gullet

American  

[guhl-it] / ˈgʌl ɪt /

noun

1. the esophagus.

2. the throat or pharynx.

3. a channel for water.

4. a gully or ravine.

5. a preparatory cut in an excavation.

6. a concavity between two sawteeth, joining them at their bases.

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verb (used with object)

1. to form a concavity at the base of (a sawtooth).

gullet British  

/ ˈɡʌlɪt /

noun

1. a less formal name for the oesophagus

2. the throat or pharynx

3. mining quarrying a preliminary cut in excavating, wide enough to take the vehicle that removes the earth

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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."

Example Sentences

Their gill arch system forms a funnel that is widest at the mouth and narrows toward the gullet.

From Science Daily • Dec. 22, 2025

As this pink delicacy was halfway down my gullet, you screamed out, “Tidbit, that’s the prop! We still need to shoot a closeup from another angle.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 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

Oesophageal cancer is a cancer that's found anywhere in the oesophagus, sometimes called the gullet or food pipe, which connects your mouth to your stomach.

From BBC • Oct. 19, 2023

Then it worked its head up and down, forcing the sticky mass down its gullet.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss