Did you know?
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
Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2026
SpaceX plans to use its Starship megarocket — a gargantuan rocket system that CEO Elon Musk originally billed for Mars travel — for the task, and expected to take on the earliest human landing attempts in NASA’s plans.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 29 May 2026
Two episodes into Off Campus, the Prime Video hockey-romance drama that’s become a gargantuan streaming hit, lead characters Hannah and Garrett are hanging out, looking at a laptop.
—Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 27 May 2026
Ampere singled out the Duffer Brothers’ hit franchise, one of Netflix’s biggest shows of all time, which has become known for lengthy gaps between seasons alongside some of the most gargantuan marketing blitzes in the history of entertainment.
—Max Goldbart, Deadline, 27 May 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 6 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
gargantuan
adjective
from Gargantua, a giant with an enormous appetite in books by the French author François Rabelais
