gargantuan

[gahr-gan-choo-uhn]

adjective

1. gigantic; enormous; colossal.

   a gargantuan task.

   Synonyms: elephantine, vast, immense, mammoth, huge

gargantuan

/ ɡɑːˈɡæntjʊən /

adjective

1. (sometimes capital) huge; enormous

Usage

Some people think that gargantuan should only be used to describe things connected with food: a gargantuan meal ; his gargantuan appetite

Word History and Origins

Origin of gargantuan¹

First recorded in 1585–95; Gargantu(a) + -an

Example Sentences

“It’s a gargantuan amount of emissions,” said Jack McDonald, senior analyst of energy policy and science for the environmental group Oilfield Witness.

From Salon

Before the fire, it was often listed as the second-tallest tree in the U.S., trailing only Hyperion, a gargantuan 380-foot Coast redwood located in Redwood National and State Parks.

From Los Angeles Times

The tour might’ve been a gargantuan success, but it also exhausted a sect of the public who didn’t care about 24/7 Swift-mania.

From Salon

Both sobriquets stem from Ludwig’s penchant for building gargantuan displays of excess at a clip that placed him in massive debt.

From Salon

To date, he has not forgotten how to eat, which is fortunate given Lamb’s gargantuan appetite and Oldman’s impatience with eating scenes where actors push their food around.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• colossal 
• enormous 
• gigantic 
• huge 
• humongous 
• immense 
• mammoth 
• massive 
• monstrous 
• monumental 
• prodigious 
• towering 
• tremendous 
• vast 

When To Use

What does gargantuan mean?

Gargantuan means extraordinarily large or huge. Some things are more than huge—they’re gargantuan.The word is commonly applied to physical objects whose size makes you marvel with awe. Blue whales are gargantuan. Skyscrapers are gargantuan. The Grand Canyon is gargantuan.But it can also be applied to intangible things, as in With all the champagne and caviar that we ordered, the bill for dinner is going to be gargantuan. It is especially associated with things involving food, such as a gargantuan appetite or a gargantuan meal.Similar adjectives are gigantic, giant, colossal, and mammoth. A more formal synonym is massive. More informal synonyms are humongous and ginormous.Something might be considered gargantuan only in comparison to other similar things. For example, an unusually large grapefruit might be described as gargantuan even though it’s not all that big in general—it’s simply gargantuan compared to normal-sized grapefruits. Still, it’s usually used to describe things that are objectively huge, like redwood trees or the planet Jupiter.Gargantuan is sometimes casually used to mean extremely important or significant—much like the figurative use of big and huge. Sometimes, this is negative, as in gargantuan error or gargantuan failure.Example: You don’t realize how gargantuan the sun is until you see an image of a planet next to it for scale.