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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
Simon Hill, Wired News, 12 July 2025
Texas is getting two more of its favorite travel centers, and a couple of other states are getting their very first.
continues to expand its footprint of gargantuan gas stations with locations slated to open across the country.
—Alexis Simmerman, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025
In the thick of a battle scene between the Man of Steel (David Corenswet) and a gargantuan fire-breathing kaiju, a suited television news anchor appears on a big screen on a building in Metropolis.
—EW.com, 27 June 2025
The gargantuan Toyota Motor plant in Georgetown, for one, has announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in electric vehicle manufacturing.
—Connor Giffin, The Courier-Journal, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for gargantuan
Cite this Entry
“Gargantuan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gargantuan. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
gargantuan
adjective
from Gargantua, a giant with an enormous appetite in books by the French author François Rabelais
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