gigantic

[jahy-gan-tik, ji-]

adjective

1. very large; huge.

   a gigantic statue.

   Synonyms: titanic, cyclopean, herculean, prodigious, immense, enormous
   Antonyms: tiny

2. of, like, or befitting a giant.

gigantic

/ dʒaɪˈɡæntɪk /

adjective

1. very large; enormous

   a gigantic error

2. Also: gigantesque. of or suitable for giants

Other Word Forms

• gigantically adverb
• giganticness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of gigantic¹

1605–15; from Latin gigant- giant + -ic

Word History and Origins

Origin of gigantic¹

C17: from Greek gigantikos, from gigas _giant

Synonym Study

Gigantic, colossal, mammoth, monstrous are used of whatever is physically or metaphorically of great magnitude. Gigantic refers to the size of a giant, or to size or scope befitting a giant: a gigantic stalk of corn. Colossal refers to the size of a colossus, to anything huge or vast as befitting a hero or god: a colossal victory. Mammoth refers to the size of the animal of that name and is used especially of anything large and heavy: a mammoth battleship. Monstrous means strikingly unusual or out of the normal in some way, as in size: a monstrous blunder.

Example Sentences

Jake, nestled into his sleeping bag on a cot underneath the museum's gigantic suspended model of a blue whale, said he was "so happy to be here."

Read more on Barron's

The White House had originally said that the gigantic structure would have a seated capacity of 650 people.

Read more on BBC

Disgruntled merchants have blocked off the famous Maradona Square in Naples, preventing tourists and visitors from glimpsing the gigantic mural of the Argentine footballer, in a row over bureaucracy.

Read more on Barron's

The implication of Zandi’s research is that the national economy would submerge under the waves if either of these two gigantic state economies were to falter.

Read more on MarketWatch

The one thing that casting directors and producers absolutely don’t want is people who are dying to be on television or have gigantic personalities.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• behemothic www.thesaurus.com
• colossal 
• enormous 
• gargantuan 
• giant 
• huge 
• immense 
• jumbo 
• mammoth 
• massive 
• monstrous 
• tremendous 
• vast 

When To Use

What does gigantic mean?

Gigantic means extraordinarily large or huge. Some things are more than huge—they’re gigantic.The word is most often applied to physical objects whose size makes you marvel with awe. Blue whales are gigantic. Skyscrapers are gigantic. The Grand Canyon is gigantic.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 gigantic. Similar adjectives are gargantuan, giant, colossal, and mammoth. A more formal synonym is massive. A more informal synonym is humongous. An even more informal synonym is ginormous (a blend of giant or gigantic and enormous). A much less common variant of gigantic is gigantean.Like any adjective used to describe something’s size, gigantic is often used in a way that’s relative to the situation. Many things described as gigantic are objectively huge, like redwood trees or the planet Jupiter. But something might be considered gigantic only in comparison to other similar things. For example, an unusually large grapefruit might be described as gigantic even though it’s not all that big in general—it’s simply gigantic compared to normal-sized grapefruits.Gigantic is sometimes casually used to mean extremely important or significant—much like the figurative use of big and huge, as in This is a gigantic win for the franchise. Sometimes, this is negative, as in gigantic error, gigantic failure, or gigantic misunderstanding.Example: You don’t realize how gigantic the sun is until you see an image of a planet next to it for scale.