Jungle
an impassable dense forest (typically tropical)
A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Because jungles occur on all inhabited landmasses and may incorporate numerous vegetation and land types in different climatic zones, the wildlife of jungles cannot be straightforwardly defined.
Etymology
The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jaṅgala (जङ्गल), meaning rough and arid. It came into the English language in the 18th century via the Hindustani word for forest (Hindi/Urdu: जंगल/جنگل) (jaṅgal). Jaṅgala has also been variously transcribed in English as jangal, jangla, jungal, and jungala. It has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its connotation as a dense "tangled thicket". The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent, and the Iranian Plateau, where it is commonly used to refer to the plant growth replacing primeval forest or to the unkempt tropical vegetation that takes over abandoned areas.
Varying usage
As dense and tangled vegetation
One of the most common meanings of jungle is land overgrown with tangled vegetation at ground level, especially in the tropics. Typically such vegetation is sufficiently dense to hinder movement by humans, requiring that travellers cut their way through.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jungle” as an impassable dense forest (typically tropical). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as an impassable dense forest (typically tropical). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q191086. The Library of Congress control number is sh89004560. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jungle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.