jungle

1. Land densely overgrown with tropical vegetation.
2. A dense thicket or growth.
3. A dense, confused mass; a jumble.
4. Something made up of many confused elements; a bewildering complex or maze: sorting through the jungle of regulations.
5. A place or milieu characterized by intense, often ruthless competition or struggle for survival: the corporate jungle.
6. Slang. A place where hoboes camp.

[Ultimately from Sanskrit jangalam, desert, wasteland, uncultivated area, from jangala-, desert, waste.]

noun

Something that is intricately and often bewilderingly complex: cat's cradle, entanglement, knot, labyrinth, maze, mesh (often used in plural), morass, skein, snarl², tangle, web. See simple/complex.

The wild parts of the dreamer's personality that may have been inhibited by social conditioning may express themselves in dreams of the jungle or the wild. (See also Forest).

For other uses, see Jungle (disambiguation).

Vine thicket, a typical jungle

Jungle refers to the most dense, more or less impenetrable regions within a tropical rainforest with an abundance of animal and plant life. The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which refers to uncultivated land,^[1] among other meanings. The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent and particularly Urdu and Hindi.

The term jungle may still be used in technical contexts to describe the rainforest biome, a forest characterised by extensive biodiversity and densely tangled undergrowth including the young trees, vines and lianas, and herbaceous plants.

Contents 1 Biome 2 As metaphor 3 References 4 External links

Biome

Jungle on Pulau Tioman, Malaysia

About 6% of the Earth's land mass consists of the ecosystems that could qualify as jungle under the common usage of the word. 57% of all species live in jungle environments.^[2] In common usage, forests of northern Thailand or southern Guangdong in China would qualify, but scientifically, these are "monsoon forests" or "tropical deciduous forests" but not "rain forests".

As a forest biome, jungles are present in both equatorial and tropical climatic zones, and are associated with preclimax stages of the rainforest. In another technical context, jungle is distinguished from tropical rainforest in that the former is a profuse thicket of tropical shrubs, vines, and small trees growing in areas outside the light-blocking canopy of a tropical rainforest. Hence, jungles are often found at the edges of climax rain-forests, where human activity may increase sunlight penetration.

As metaphor

As a metaphor, jungle often refers to situations that are unruly or lawless, or where the only law is perceived to be "survival of the fittest". This reflects the view of "city people" that forests are such places. Upton Sinclair gave the title The Jungle (1906) to his famous book about the life of workers at the Chicago Stockyards portraying the workers as being mercilessly exploited with no legal or other lawful recourse.

The term "The Law of the Jungle" is also used in a similar context, drawn from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) - though in the society of jungle animals portrayed in that book and obviously meant as a metaphor for human society, that phrase referred to an intricate code of laws which Kipling describes in detail, and not at all to a lawless chaos.

References

1. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/jungle?cat=technology
2. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/tv/jungle/

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jungle

Look up jungle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• BBC - Science and Nature: Jungle
• Jungle: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com
• Amazon Rainforest Fund
• Link illustrating Biomes

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - jungle, vildnis

idioms:

• jungle fever    tropisk sygdom, malaria
• jungle gym    klatrestativ
• the law of the jungle    jungleloven

Nederlands (Dutch)
jungle, verwarrend geheel, kamp van landlopers, plaats/ situatie waar overleven voorop staat

Français (French)
n. - (lit, fig) jungle

idioms:

• jungle fever    forme de malaria
• jungle gym    cage à l'écureuil (sur un terrain de jeu)
• the law of the jungle    la loi de la jungle

Deutsch (German)
n. - Dschungel

idioms:

• jungle fever    Dschungelfieber
• jungle gym    Abenteuerspielplatz
• the law of the jungle    das Gesetz des Dschungels

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ζούγκλα

idioms:

• jungle fever    βαριά μορφή ελονοσίας
• jungle gym    σκαλωσιά αναρρίχησης παιδιών
• the law of the jungle    ο νόμος της ζούγκλας

Italiano (Italian)
giungla

idioms:

• jungle fever    febbre malarica
• jungle gym    gioco da giardino (sbarre orizzontali e verticali dove i bambini si arrampicano)
• the law of the jungle    la legge della giungla

Português (Portuguese)
n. - selva (f), bagunça (f), situação (f) competitiva

idioms:

• jungle fever    malária (f) (Med.), doença (f) tropical
• jungle gym    trepa-trepa (m)
• the law of the jungle    a lei (f) da selva

Русский (Russian)
джунгли, неразбериха, место отчаянной борьбы за существование

idioms:

• jungle fever    болотная лихорадка
• jungle gym    гимнастический снаряд
• the law of the jungle    закон джунглей

Español (Spanish)
n. - jungla, selva, maraña

idioms:

• jungle fever    fiebre palúdica, malaria
• jungle gym    estructura de barras para el juego de los niños
• the law of the jungle    la ley de la selva

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - djungel

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
丛林, 生死关头

idioms:

• jungle fever    丛林热
• jungle gym    儿童游戏用的立体方格铁架
• the law of the jungle    弱肉强食的生存法则, 无法无天的作法

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 叢林, 生死關頭

idioms:

• jungle fever    叢林熱
• jungle gym    兒童遊戲用的立體方格鐵架
• the law of the jungle    弱肉強食的生存法則, 無法無天的作法

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 밀림 , 잡동사니, 생존 경쟁의 장

idioms:

• the law of the jungle    약육강식의 원칙

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 密林, ジャングル, ごたごたした集まり, 混乱, 生存競争の場

idioms:

• jungle fever    密林熱
• jungle gym    ジャングルジム

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دغل, ديسه, حرش‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮יער-עבות, יער, סבך, ג'ונגל, מקום של בלבול ומבוכה, מקום של מאבק הישרדות‬

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