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

See ChatGPT and what’s followed it, including gargantuan amounts of spending by Meta and others. —John Tamny, Forbes.com, 21 Jan. 2026

Baby-naming is a gargantuan task. —Raven Smith, Vogue, 20 Jan. 2026

But the kitchen is gargantuan in comparison. —Michael Deeds, Idaho Statesman, 20 Jan. 2026

These centers, which have cost the tech industry billions of dollars to make, use up a gargantuan amount of electricity. —Ramishah Maruf, CNN Money, 16 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Gargantua

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined above

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