huge

[hyooj, yooj]

adjective

huger, hugest 

1. extraordinarily large in bulk, quantity, or extent.

   a huge ship; a huge portion of ice cream.

   Synonyms: bulky, stupendous, vast, colossal, gigantic, mammoth
   Antonyms: diminutive, tiny, small

2. of unbounded extent, scope, or character; limitless.

   the huge genius of Mozart.

3. Slang.,  very important, successful, popular, etc..

   The show is huge in Britain.

huge

/ hjuːdʒ /

adjective

1. Archaic form: hugeous. extremely large in size, amount, or scope

Pronunciation Note

See human.

Other Word Forms

• hugely adverb
• hugeness noun
• overhuge adjective
• overhugely adverb
• overhugeness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of huge¹

First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English huge, hoge from Old French ahuge, ahoge “enormous,” equivalent to a- a- ⁵ + hoge “height” from Germanic; compare Old Norse haugr “hill” ( high )

Word History and Origins

Origin of huge¹

C13: from Old French ahuge, of uncertain origin

Synonym Study

Huge, enormous, immense, tremendous imply great magnitude. Huge implies massiveness, bulkiness, or even shapelessness: a huge mass of rock; a huge collection of antiques. Enormous, literally out of the norm, applies to what exceeds in extent, magnitude, or degree, a norm or standard: an enormous iceberg. Tremendous, in informal use, applies to anything so huge as to be astonishing or to inspire awe: a tremendous amount of equipment. Immense, literally not measurable, is particularly applicable to what is exceedingly great, without reference to a standard: immense buildings. All are used figuratively: a huge success; enormous curiosity; tremendous effort; immense joy.

Example Sentences

“He still guarded. And that was huge. The reason we won the game is because we guarded in the fourth quarter. Our fourth-quarter defense was the No. 1 reason we won the game.”

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“Ira is not a huge fan of rehearsing the actors but he cares a lot about blocking, so we did a lot of blocking rehearsals with stand-ins,” Ashe says.

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Similarly to the Grammys, which is largely seen by the general public as one huge night but works year-round, how do you raise the profile of the hall nationally year-round?

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“Within that material was this maternal guilt and this discrepancy in domestic labor tasks in heterosexual couples that, to me, is just this huge issue,” she says.

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America’s working class and poor represent a huge sleeping giant of tens of millions of potential voters who could radically reshape the country in ways that would strengthen and expand access to the American Dream.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• colossal 
• enormous 
• extensive 
• gargantuan 
• giant 
• gigantic 
• great 
• humongous 
• immense 
• magnificent 
• mammoth 
• massive 
• monstrous 
• monumental 
• towering 
• tremendous 
• vast