gargantuan

[gahr-gan-choo-uhn]

adjective

1. gigantic; enormous; colossal.

   a gargantuan task.

   Synonyms: elephantine, vast, immense, mammoth, huge

gargantuan

/ ɡɑːˈɡæntjʊən /

adjective

1. (sometimes capital) huge; enormous

Usage

Some people think that gargantuan should only be used to describe things connected with food: a gargantuan meal ; his gargantuan appetite

Word History and Origins

Origin of gargantuan¹

First recorded in 1585–95; Gargantu(a) + -an

Example Sentences

Technology companies are spending these gargantuan sums to build AI infrastructure because they believe end customers, mainly businesses, will soon pay them gigantic amounts to run AI applications.

Read more on MarketWatch

Now he faces the merely gargantuan task of propelling his country out of “100 years of decadence,” to quote his own phrase.

Read more on Barron's

Bach’s music has a circular spell quality and the pipe organ, resounding with reverb in gargantuan cathedrals, was the original synthesizer.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The administration’s work in brokering a ceasefire and pending peace deal in Gaza has blown up his ego to even more gargantuan proportions, and it appears he just can’t be bothered.

Read more on Salon

Germany's defence ministry faces a gargantuan logistical challenge in building the infrastructure that will be required to match its expanded military ambitions.

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Related Words

• colossal 
• enormous 
• gigantic 
• huge 
• humongous 
• immense 
• mammoth 
• massive 
• monstrous 
• monumental 
• prodigious 
• towering 
• tremendous 
• vast 

When To Use

What does gargantuan mean?

Gargantuan means extraordinarily large or huge. Some things are more than huge—they’re gargantuan.The word is commonly applied to physical objects whose size makes you marvel with awe. Blue whales are gargantuan. Skyscrapers are gargantuan. The Grand Canyon is gargantuan.But it can also be applied to intangible things, as in With all the champagne and caviar that we ordered, the bill for dinner is going to be gargantuan. It is especially associated with things involving food, such as a gargantuan appetite or a gargantuan meal.Similar adjectives are gigantic, giant, colossal, and mammoth. A more formal synonym is massive. More informal synonyms are humongous and ginormous.Something might be considered gargantuan only in comparison to other similar things. For example, an unusually large grapefruit might be described as gargantuan even though it’s not all that big in general—it’s simply gargantuan compared to normal-sized grapefruits. Still, it’s usually used to describe things that are objectively huge, like redwood trees or the planet Jupiter.Gargantuan is sometimes casually used to mean extremely important or significant—much like the figurative use of big and huge. Sometimes, this is negative, as in gargantuan error or gargantuan failure.Example: You don’t realize how gargantuan the sun is until you see an image of a planet next to it for scale.