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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.
Synonyms of gargantuan
Examples of gargantuan in a Sentence
Sarah Min,
CNBC,
18 June 2026
And that organization has had a gargantuan effect on political outcomes.
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Dana Taylor,
USA Today,
16 June 2026
At their largest, marine heat waves like the Northeast Pacific Warm Blob of 2013-2014 can grow to gargantuan proportions, with regions three times the size of Texas experiencing ocean temperatures 4 to 6 F (about 2 to 3 C) above average for months or even years.
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Dillon Amaya,
The Conversation,
12 June 2026
Baldoni, who denied the allegations, filed a gargantuan defamation suit for $400 million against Lively and her camp, as well as a $250 million libel suit against The New York Times’ coverage of the claims.
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Jami Ganz,
New York Daily News,
12 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for gargantuan
Cite this Entry
“Gargantuan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gargantuan. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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gargantuan
adjective
from Gargantua, a giant with an enormous appetite in books by the French author François Rabelais
