gargantuan

See also: Gargantuan

English

Alternative forms

• Gargantuan

Etymology

From French Gargantua, a giant with a very large appetite in Rabelais's The Inestimable Life of Gargantua. Rabelais derived Gargantua from the Portuguese and Spanish garganta (“throat”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɑːˈɡæn.t͡ʃu.ən/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɡɑɹˈɡæn.t͡ʃu.ən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɡaːˈɡæn.t͡ʃʉ.ən/

Adjective

gargantuan (comparative more gargantuan, superlative most gargantuan)

1. Huge; immense; tremendous.

   Synonyms: colossal, enormous, giant, huge, humongous, immense; see also Thesaurus:large

   • 2018 May 4, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Some distant observers of the Scottish football scene reckon that all - all! - Gerrard has to do is beat Celtic to become a legend. Even if that was true - and, demonstrably, it is not - then it would be a gargantuan task all on its own.

   • 2019 September 14, Elizabeth Paton, “A Fashion/Food Blowout in the Shadow of Brexit”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Or the twinkling dining rooms: all frilly net curtains, pink walls, kaleidoscope-patterned carpets and tiny tables, crammed with teetering piles of hand-painted ceramic crockery (think plates covered in colorful swirls and cocktail mugs shaped like heaving bosoms or ladies’ faces) that showcase gargantuan portions of Italian fare.

   • 2022 April 7, Oliver Milman, “I test-drove the all-electric Hummer. Can it win over America’s EV skeptics?”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Boxy and unrefined, the Hummer embodied an outlandishly masculine aesthetic that seemed to almost revel in its gargantuan fuel consumption.

2. (obsolete) Of the giant Gargantua or his appetite.

Derived terms

• gargantuanism
• gargantuanly
• gargantuanness
• hypergargantuan
• supergargantuan

Translations

huge

• Danish: gigantisk, enorm
• Dutch: immens (nl)
• Estonian: hiiglaslik (et), hiigelsuur
• Finnish: valtava (fi), jättiläismäinen (fi), jättimäinen (fi), suunnaton (fi)
• French: gargantuesque (fr)
• German: gigantisch (de)
• Hungarian: rettentő nagy (hu), óriási (hu)
• Indonesian: besar (id), raksasa (id), luar biasa (id)
• Italian: gigantesco (it), gargantuesco (it)
• Japanese: 巨大な (きょだいな, kyodaina), 膨大な (ぼうだいな, bōdaina), 夥しい (ja) (おびただしい, obitadashī)
• Kannada: ಬೃಹದಾಕಾರದ (kn) (bṛhadākārada), ದೈತ್ಯಾಕಾರದ (kn) (daityākārada), ವಿಪರೀತ (kn) (viparīta), ದೊಡ್ಡ (kn) (doḍḍa), ರಾಕ್ಷಸಾಕಾರದ (kn) (rākṣasākārada)
• Macedonian: гига́нтски (gigántski)
• Malayalam: വളരെ വലിയ (vaḷare valiya)
• Polish: gigantyczny (pl), gargantuiczny (pl)
• Romanian: imens (ro), enorm (ro), uriaș (ro), colosal (ro)
• Russian: гига́нтский (ru) (gigántskij)
• Swedish: gigantisk (sv), enorm (sv)

of the giant Gargantua or his appetite

• French: gargantuesque (fr)
• Italian: gargantuesco (it)
• Japanese: ガルガンチュワの (Garuganchuwa no)
• Polish: gargantuiczny (pl)
• Romanian: gargantuesc

Further reading

• “gargantuan”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “gargantuan”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “gargantuan”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “gargantuan”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “gargantuan”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “gargantuan” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.
• “gargantuan”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.