The junction gate field-effect transistor (JFET or JUGFET) is the simplest type of field effect transistor. Like other transistors, it can be used as an electronically-controlled switch. It is also used as a voltage-controlled resistance. An electric current flows from one connection, called the source, to a second connection, called the drain. A third connection, the gate, determines how much current flows. By applying an increasing negative (for an n-channel JFET) bias voltage to the gate, the current flow from source to drain can be impeded by pinching off the channel, in effect switching off the transistor.

The JFET consists of a long channel of semiconductor material. This material is doped so that it contains an abundance of positive charge carriers (p-type), or of negative charge carriers (n-type). There is a contact at each end; these are the source and drain. The third control terminal, the gate, surrounds the channel, and is doped opposite to the doping-type of the channel, forming a p-n junction at the interface of the two types of the material. Terminals to connect with the outside are usually made Ohmic.

Sometimes the JFET gate is drawn in the middle of the channel instead of at the drain/source electrode as in these examples. This symmetric variation is hinting that the channel is indeed symmetric in the sense that drain and source are interchangeable physical terminals. So this symbol variation should be used only for JFETs where drain and source indeed are interchangeable, which is not true for all JFETs.

Traditionally, the US style of the symbol was drawn with the whole component inside a circle, although this has been simplified in favor of the European style to draw it without a circle.

In every case the arrow head indicates the polarity of the P-N-junction of the gate in relationship to the channel. As with a diode, the arrow points from P to N, indicating the direction of conventional current flows when forward-biased. A mnemonic for remembering the N-channel device is that the arrow "points in".

In order to pinch off the channel, one must produce a certain voltage in reverse direction (V_GS) of that junction. The precise value of this pinch off voltage varies with individual JFETs, even with JFETs of the same type, typical values ranging between 0.5 to 10 V.

The appropriate voltage bias can be remembered easily, since the n-channel device requires a negative gate-source voltage (V_GS) to switch off the JFET, while the p-channel device requires a positive gate-source voltage (V_GS) to switch off the JFET.