gargantuan

adjective

gar·​gan·​tuan gär-ˈgan(t)-sh(ə-)wən 

variants often Gargantuan

: tremendous in size, volume, or degree : gigantic, colossal

gargantuan waterfalls

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

• gigantic
• huge
• enormous
• giant
• vast
• massive
• colossal
• tremendous
• mammoth
• immense
• monumental
• astronomical
• monstrous
• titanic

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

Miami will need a perfect game to even stay close Sunday, a gargantuan ask of the youngest team in the NFL playing a veteran, pedigreed opponent. — Miami Herald, 17 Sep. 2026

The gargantuan nose tackle slid down the 2025 draft chutes over a nagging back problem the University of Kentucky declined to shut down. — Matt Schneidman, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2026

Getting real relief for our healthcare affordability woes is a gargantuan challenge that involves reforming many different parts of the system. — Lisa Jarvis, Twin Cities, 5 Sep. 2026

While sometimes vitriolic discussions about the gargantuan structures have accompanied increasingly unavoidable AI conversations, data centers themselves have been around since the 1940s. — Greta Reich, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Gargantua

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

gargantuan

adjective

gar·​gan·​tuan gär-ˈganch-wən 

-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