gargantuan

adjective

gar·​gan·​tuan gär-ˈgan(t)-sh(ə-)wən 

variants often Gargantuan

: tremendous in size, volume, or degree : gigantic, colossal

gargantuan waterfalls

Did you know?

Gargantua is the name of a giant king in François Rabelais's 16th-century satiric novel Gargantua, the second part of a five-volume series about the giant and his son Pantagruel. All of the details of Gargantua's life befit a giant. He rides a colossal mare whose tail switches so violently that it fells the entire forest of Orleans. He has an enormous appetite, such that in one incident he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua led to the adjective gargantuan, which since William Shakespeare's time has been used for anything of tremendous size or volume.

Synonyms of gargantuan

• gigantic
• huge
• enormous
• giant
• vast
• massive
• colossal
• tremendous
• mammoth
• immense
• monumental
• astronomical
• monstrous
• titanic

Examples of gargantuan in a Sentence

a creature of gargantuan proportions

people seem to be buying ever more gargantuan SUVs these days

Recent Examples on the Web

Executives, investor relations and corporate communications teams are surely cheering the move, which will result in less gargantuan numbers than previous disclosures. — Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 13 Nov. 2026

Matthew Barney, the artist behind epic film projects such as The Cremaster Cycle and River of Fundament, very nearly took on yet another gargantuan project. — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 13 Nov. 2026

When the credits finally roll at the end of the gargantuan superhero team-up, audience members will see that the screenplay was written by Marvel veterans Stephen McFeely and Michael Waldron. — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 12 Nov. 2026

Big jobs require big machinery, from heavy-haul trucks on the ground to gargantuan cranes that lift structures way up in the sky. — Caleb Jacobs, The Drive, 6 Nov. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Gargantua

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

gargantuan

adjective

gar·​gan·​tuan gär-ˈganch-wən 

-ə-wən

: extraordinary in size, degree, or volume : gigantic

Etymology

from Gargantua, a giant with an enormous appetite in books by the French author François Rabelais