gargantuan

adjective

gar·​gan·​tuan gär-ˈgan(t)-sh(ə-)wən How to pronounce gargantuan (audio)
often capitalized
: tremendous in size, volume, or degree : gigantic, colossal
gargantuan waterfalls

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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.

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
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The look Sweeney took inspiration from was first worn on the runway ensconced in a gargantuan, white faux fur coat, before the model stripped it off to reveal the silver showstopper underneath. Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 1 Oct. 2025 The herculean effort to translate its gargantuan script didn’t pay off and as a result, the outlook of XSeed localizing Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (SC) and Third Chapter (TC) remained grim for years. George Yang, Rolling Stone, 30 Sep. 2025 But more than that, there has to be an intrinsic motivation to take on gargantuan tasks. Haley Sawyer, Oc Register, 25 Sep. 2025 The modular architecture lets operators scale capacity by stacking more cells rather than building a single gargantuan reactor. Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 23 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for gargantuan

Word History

Etymology

Gargantua

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of gargantuan was in 1596

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Cite this Entry

“Gargantuan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gargantuan. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.

Kids Definition

gargantuan

adjective
gar·​gan·​tuan gär-ˈganch-wən How to pronounce gargantuan (audio)
-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

More from Merriam-Webster on gargantuan

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