prodigious

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle French prodigieux, from Latin prōdigiōsus (“unnatural, strange, wonderful, marvelous”), from prōdigium (“an omen, portent, monster”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈdɪd͡ʒəs/
• Rhymes: -ɪdʒəs

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

prodigious (comparative more prodigious, superlative most prodigious)

1. Very big in size or quantity; gigantic; colossal; huge.
   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     Its prodigious size made me shrink again; yet I could not, without pleasure, behold, and even ventur'd to feel, such a length, such a breadth of animated ivory!

2. Extraordinarily exciting or amazing.
3. (obsolete) Ominous, portentous.
4. Monstrous; freakish.

Synonyms

• gigantic, colossal, huge, enormous; See also Thesaurus:gigantic
• amazing
• ominous, portentous

Derived terms

• prodigiously

Translations

gigantic or huge

• Catalan: prodigiós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: suunnaton (fi), mahtava (fi)
• German: ungeheuer (de), gewaltig (de)
• Hungarian: hatalmas (hu), óriási (hu)
• Japanese: 途方もない (ja) (とほうもない, tohōmonai)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: enorm (ro) m or n, gigantic (ro), prodigios (ro), vast (ro), neobișnuit (ro) m or n
• Russian: чрезме́рный (ru) (črezmérnyj), грома́дный (ru) (gromádnyj), непоме́рный (ru) (nepomérnyj), огро́мный (ru) (ogrómnyj)
• Swedish: ofantlig (sv), enorm (sv), gigantisk (sv)
• Turkish: devasa (tr), kocaman (tr), muazzam (tr)
• Westrobothnian: ,

amazing

• Catalan: prodigiós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: ällistyttävä (fi), hämmästyttävä (fi)
• French: prodigieux (fr)
• German: verwunderlich (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: bámulatos (hu), tüneményes, páratlan (hu), csodálatos (hu)
• Occitan: prodigiós
• Russian: умопомрачи́тельный (ru) (umopomračítelʹnyj), изуми́тельный (ru) (izumítelʹnyj), порази́тельный (ru) (porazítelʹnyj), удиви́тельный (ru) (udivítelʹnyj)
• Swedish: häpnadsväckande (sv)
• Turkish: hayret verici, şaşırtıcı (tr)

Further reading

• “prodigious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “prodigious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “prodigious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.