giant

noun gi·ant \ ˈjī-ənt \

|Updated on: 9 Aug 2018

Examples: giant in a Sentence

Definition of giant

1 : a legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength

2 a : a living being of great size

b : a person of extraordinary powers

3 : something unusually large or powerful

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giantlike

play \ˈjī-ənt-ˌlīk\ adjective

See giant defined for English-language learners

See giant defined for kids

Examples of giant in a Sentence

the land of the giants
the Great Pyramids of Egypt are giants among the world's architectural wonders

Recent Examples of giant from the Web

But the pharmaceutical giant wasn’t the only drug company seeking to charge more for its products in recent days.

— robert langreth and cynthia koons, BostonGlobe.com, "Many drugmakers ignore Trump — and raise prices anyway," 13 July 2018
Humana The homegrown health insurance giant has been a title sponsor to golf tournaments, and in Louisville its name has been closely associated with Actor's Theater's New American Plays Festival for decades.

— grace schneider, The Courier-Journal, "Pizza Hut, Kroger, Republic Bank? Who wants Cardinal Stadium naming rights," 13 July 2018
The social media giant has conducted internal surveys and found that most intend to stay at the company, Harrison said.

— jaclyn gallucci, Fortune, "Facebook Named Best Company to Work For in the U.S. by Indeed," 12 July 2018
After all, the streaming giant had been closing the gap at an unprecedented clip in recent years.

— lacey rose, The Hollywood Reporter, "Emmys: HBO's Most Nominated Streak Ends Amid AT&T's Volume Push," 12 July 2018
The fight for Britain's leading pay-TV group is part of a bigger battle being waged in the entertainment industry as the world's media giants splash out tens of billions of dollars on deals to be able to compete with Netflix and Amazon.

— NBC News, "Comcast raises bid for Sky to $34 billion, tops Fox's offer," 11 July 2018
The British energy giant is seeking a large foothold in Texas shale to compete with Chevron and Exxon Mobil, which last year acquired the Permian holdings of the Bass family of Fort Worth for up to $6.6 billion.

— jordan blum, San Antonio Express-News, "Oil, gas deal surge likely in coming months," 11 July 2018
The social media giant has suspended more than 70 million accounts since May, at a rate of more than 1 million a day, my colleagues Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin report.

— derek hawkins, Washington Post, "The Cybersecurity 202: Twitter's fake account purge can help turn the tide against influence campaigns," 9 July 2018
According to the Post’s report on Twitter’s bot efforts, political pressure from Congress (in reaction to Russia’s election meddling) is driving the social media giant’s purge.

— emily stewart, Vox, "Trump wants Twitter to delete the New York Times’ and the Washington Post’s accounts.," 7 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'giant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of giant

Middle English giaunt, from Anglo-French geant, from Latin gigant-, gigas, from Greek

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

giant Synonyms

giant

adjective

Definition of giant

: having extremely large size, proportion, or power

See giant defined for English-language learners

Examples of giant in a Sentence

a giant-size box of detergent
the giant sycamore tree that dwarfs our house is almost 250 years old

Recent Examples of giant from the Web

In Edinburgh, a police helicopter almost drowned out the chants of the protesters, who plan to launch into the sky the giant ‘‘Baby Donald’’ balloon — depicting the president as an angry orange baby.

— paul kelbie, BostonGlobe.com, "10,000 protesters opposing Trump march through Scottish capital," 14 July 2018
Stephanie is half-crying, Anthony’s giant smile lights up the room, our hearts are full.

— meagan fredette, refinery29.com, "Thinking Of Getting Engaged? Do It In Front Of Taylor Swift," 14 July 2018
Virginians are being urged to report sightings of giant hogweed.

— sarah klein, Health.com, "Giant Hogweed Sent This Virginia Teen to the Hospital. Here's What to Know About the Scary Plant That Can Burn Your Skin and Lead to Blindness," 13 July 2018
At the time there was a giant sucking sound in the universe, and it was called Google.

— adam fisher, WIRED, "Sex, Beer, and Coding: Inside Facebook’s Wild Early Days," 10 July 2018
This would include removing the giant display windows that were put in when the building was a shoe store and would give us more floor space while aiming to make the facade more aesthetically consistent with the other buildings on our street.

— erin sauder, Elgin Courier-News, "Down to Business: Mother and daughter knitting together a community," 8 June 2018
Taxify’s existing investors already include the Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.

— alan murray, Fortune, "China Surprise, EU Tariffs, Browder Arrest: CEO Daily for May 30, 2018," 30 May 2018
Last month, giant hogweed was recently spotted in Virginia for the first time.

— CBS News, "Giant hogweed sends Virginia teen to hospital, burn unit," 13 July 2018
As the giant orange inflatable — the focus of love, hate and a lot of global media attention — prepares to make its maiden voyage above the skies of London during Trump's U.K. visit, organizers say a world tour is already in the works.

— alex ritman, The Hollywood Reporter, "London Protest Organizers Plan to Take the 'Trump Baby' Blimp on the Road," 13 July 2018

First Known Use of giant

15th century

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

giant Synonyms

Synonyms

astronomical (also astronomic), bumper, colossal, cosmic (also cosmical), elephantine, enormous, galactic, gargantuan, gigantic, grand, herculean, heroic (also heroical), huge, humongous (also humungous), immense, jumbo, king-size (or king-sized), leviathan, mammoth, massive, mega, mighty, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, oceanic, planetary, prodigious, super, supersize, supersized, titanic, tremendous, vast, vasty, walloping, whacking, whopping;

Antonyms

bantam, bitty, diminutive, infinitesimal, little bitty, micro, microminiature, microscopic (also microscopical), midget, miniature, minuscule, minute, pocket, pygmy, teensy, teensy-weensy, teeny, teeny-weeny, tiny, wee;

Near Antonyms

little, mini, petite, pint-size (or pint-sized), puny, small, smallish, undersized (also undersize);

dinky, dwarfish, half-pint;

august, formidable, grandiose, imposing, lofty, majestic;

cavernous, monolithic, overwhelming, staggering, stupendous, towering;

boundless, immeasurable, infinite;

GIANT Defined for English Language Learners

giant

noun

Definition of giant for English Language Learners

: a legendary creature usually thought of as being an extremely large and powerful person
: a person or thing that is very large, powerful, or successful