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.
Instead of slamming directly into a flat barrier, particles move along the surface and are guided onward toward the gullet.
From Science Daily • Dec. 22, 2025
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
Moshfegh, in her fourth novel, thrives in the mire, a happy little worm sliding dirt down her gullet.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2022
There’s even an Easter egg homage to a scene in the 1962 original, in which Kong jams a tree trunk down Godzilla’s gullet.
From New York Times • Mar. 30, 2021
If I got this wrong, it wasn't just a one-star review on Yelp; it was a fast trip down Nergal's feather-lined gullet.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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.
