giant
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Giant
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[edit] English
[edit] Alternative forms
- giaunt (obsolete)
[edit] Etymology
From Ancient Greek γίγας (gigas, “giant”), Middle English geant from Old French geant, gaiant (Modern French géant) from Vulgar Latin *gagās, gagant- from Latin gigās, gigant-. Cognate to giga- (“1,000,000,000”).
Replaced native Middle English eten, ettin (from Old English ēoten), Middle English eont (from Old English ent).
Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree”) and Old English þyrs (“giant, monster, demon”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
giant (plural giants)
- A mythical human of very great size
- (mythology) Specifically, any of the Gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
- A very tall person.
- A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
- (astronomy) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (eg. red giant, blue giant).
- (computing) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
- A very large organisation.
- The retail giant is set to acquire two more struggling high-street chains.
[edit] Translations
mythical human
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Greek mythological creature
very tall person
luminous star
[edit] Adjective
giant (not comparable)
- Very large.
[edit] Synonyms
- colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
- See also Wikisaurus:gigantic
[edit] Translations
giant
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