"law of the jungle" meaning in English

See law of the jungle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-law of the jungle.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: Introduced by Rudyard Kipling in his 1894 book, The Jungle Book, in which he used the term in the literal sense of a legal code governing the behaviour of his anthropomorphised animals in an Indian jungle. Note also the (possibly derived) colloquial sense of jungle (“place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|jungle||place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality}} jungle (“place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality”) Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} law of the jungle
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see law, jungle. Related terms: anything goes, dog eat dog, every man for himself, free-for-all, survival of the fittest
    Sense id: en-law_of_the_jungle-en-noun-cv5yD83T Categories (other): Rudyard Kipling Disambiguation of Rudyard Kipling: 64 36
  2. (figurative) A putative law dictating that one serves one's own interest to the extent that one can, in any situation where legal authority is absent or generally ignored; self-interested behaviour that emerges in the absence of law; lawlessness. Tags: figuratively Translations (putative law of a lawless situation): شريعَة الغاب [feminine] (Arabic), قانون الغابَة [masculine] (Arabic), viidakon laki (Finnish), loi de la jungle [feminine] (French), loi du plus fort [feminine] (French), lei da selva [feminine] (Galician), a dzsungel törvénye (Hungarian), farkasok törvénye (Hungarian), farkastörvény (Hungarian), legge della giungla [feminine] (Italian), 弱肉強食 (jakuniku kyōshoku) (Japanese), 약육강식 (yagyukgangsik) (alt: 弱肉强食) (Korean), prawo dżungli [neuter] (Polish), prawo pięści [neuter] (Polish), wilcze prawo [neuter] (Polish), lei da selva [feminine] (Portuguese), legea junglei [feminine] (Romanian), зако́н джу́нглей (zakón džúnglej) [masculine] (Russian), ley de la selva [feminine] (Spanish), djungelns lag (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-law_of_the_jungle-en-noun-NM3hkRL0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys, Rudyard Kipling Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 19 81 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 18 82 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 20 80 Disambiguation of Rudyard Kipling: 64 36 Disambiguation of 'putative law of a lawless situation': 15 85

Download JSON data for law of the jungle meaning in English (7.4kB)

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  "etymology_text": "Introduced by Rudyard Kipling in his 1894 book, The Jungle Book, in which he used the term in the literal sense of a legal code governing the behaviour of his anthropomorphised animals in an Indian jungle.\nNote also the (possibly derived) colloquial sense of jungle (“place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality”).",
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          "text": "1988, The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in Southeast Asia: Problems of Implementation, Volume 1, Southeast Asian Programme on Ocean Law, Policy, and Management, page 2,\nFor small countries such as Singapore, they would have the most to lose if the law of the jungle were to prevail."
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          "_dis1": "15 85",
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          "word": "farkastörvény"
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          "alt": "弱肉强食",
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          "roman": "zakón džúnglej",
          "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
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          "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
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        },
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      "word": "شريعَة الغاب"
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      "lang": "Arabic",
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      "word": "قانون الغابَة"
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      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "word": "viidakon laki"
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      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
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      "word": "loi de la jungle"
    },
    {
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      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "loi du plus fort"
    },
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      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
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      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "word": "a dzsungel törvénye"
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    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "word": "farkasok törvénye"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "word": "farkastörvény"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "legge della giungla"
    },
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      "lang": "Japanese",
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      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "word": "弱肉強食"
    },
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      "alt": "弱肉强食",
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      "lang": "Korean",
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      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "word": "약육강식"
    },
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      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "prawo dżungli"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
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    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
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        "neuter"
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    },
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      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
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      "word": "lei da selva"
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      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "legea junglei"
    },
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      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "zakón džúnglej",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
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        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "зако́н джу́нглей"
    },
    {
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      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "putative law of a lawless situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
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    },
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    }
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    "The Jungle Book",
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}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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