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

Apartment dwellers know all too well that every square inch counts, but optimizing a smaller bathroom or half bathroom doesn’t need to feel like a gargantuan task. — Audrey Lee, Architectural Digest, 13 Aug. 2026

The weekend before Monday’s drawing for the gargantuan Powerball jackpot, five Florida Lottery major money draw game players hit for lesser big prizes. — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 10 Aug. 2026

To manage flooding, Tokyo built two gargantuan underground systems of tanks and tunnels. — Len Maniace, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2026

With the gargantuan Oracle Park video board emblazoned with a greeting for Jackson Flora, the face of the organization’s glorious past welcomed the young man expected to be a sizable part of its future. — Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 29 July 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