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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
Michael Santoli, CNBC, 6 Oct. 2025
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
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Cite this Entry
“Gargantuan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gargantuan. Accessed 18 Oct. 2025.
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gargantuan
adjective
from Gargantua, a giant with an enormous appetite in books by the French author François Rabelais
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