Definition of GARGANTUAN

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Gargantua is the name of a giant king in François Rabelais's 16th-century satiric novel Gargantua. 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 - in one memorable incident, he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua gave rise to the adjective "gargantuan," which since Shakespeare's time has been used of anything of tremendous size or volume.

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

Airbus' flagship plane is primed for a similar fate as another gargantuan aviation legend: the Boeing 747. — Sam Blum, Popular Mechanics, "Airbus to Stop Production of the Colossal A380 as Airlines Transition to Smaller Planes," 14 Feb. 2019 So far, officials are signaling that stimulus measures will be focused more on consumer tax cuts and fiscal support for infrastructure, rather than another gargantuan credit splurge that would pressure the yuan. — Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, "China’s Yuan Plays Fed, Trump Roulette," 11 Jan. 2019 Other monuments, such as a gargantuan pair of crossed swords — held by hands modeled after those of Saddam — that loom above Grand Festivities Square or the 673-foot Baghdad TV tower, have also faded. — Nabih Bulos, The Seattle Times, "Baghdad, once a jewel among Arab capitals, is barely functional," 28 Jan. 2019 That is a gargantuan undertaking that will touch every American life. — David Roberts, Vox, "The Green New Deal, explained," 21 Dec. 2018 Fortnite isn't just free to play—its gargantuan revenue coming from players buying costumes or subscribing to premium challenges—but it, like PUBG, can be played on mobile devices as well as on game consoles and PCs. — Carter Melrose, WIRED, "Why Battle Royale Games Like Fortnite Are Everywhere (It’s Not Just Money)," 14 June 2018 The Cougars walked out of Stanford Stadium with a three-point win in October, but WSU’s corners, namely 5-9 Marcus Strong and 5-10 Darrien Molton, were mismatched against Stanford’s gargantuan receivers and tight ends. — Theo Lawson, The Seattle Times, "NCAA early signing day: These five WSU recruits could make an instant impact for the Cougars," 17 Dec. 2018 How do small girls eat these gargantuan amounts of food? — Abigail Haworth, Marie Claire, "Forced to Be Fat," 21 July 2011 Medicare-for-all has a great talking point but no plan Bringing the entire health care system onto the federal books would be a big deal because a gargantuan sum of money is already being spent in the health care sector. — Matthew Yglesias, Vox, "The $21 trillion Pentagon accounting error that can’t pay for Medicare-for-all, explained," 3 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'gargantuan.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.