colossal
English
Etymology
From French colossal, formed from Latin colossus, from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, “giant statue”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
colossal (comparative more colossal, superlative most colossal)
- Extremely large or on a great scale.
- 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
- Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.
- A single puppy can make a colossal mess.
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 828: Parameter 3 is not used by this template.
- Amazingly spectacular; extraordinary; epic.
- 1912, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World[1]:
- "It's just the very biggest thing that I ever heard of!" said I, though it was my journalistic rather than my scientific enthusiasm that was roused. "It is colossal. You are a Columbus of science who has discovered a lost world."
Synonyms
- (extremely large): enormous, giant, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
- See also Thesaurus:gigantic
Related terms
Translations
extremely large
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Anagrams
French
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
colossal (feminine colossale, masculine plural colossaux, feminine plural colossales)
Derived terms
Descendants
Further reading
- “colossal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Portuguese
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
colossal m or f (plural colossais)
Further reading
- “colossal”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024
- “colossal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2024
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- Rhymes:Portuguese/al
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