leviathan
noun
Often Leviathan a sea monster.
leviathan
American
[li-vahy-uh-thuhn]
/ lɪˈvaɪ ə θən /
noun
-
leviathans
plural
-
Bible. Often Leviathan a sea monster.
-
any huge marine animal, as the whale.
-
anything of immense size and power, as a huge, oceangoing ship.
-
Leviathan, a philosophical work (1651) by Thomas Hobbes dealing with the political organization of society.
leviathan
British
/ lɪˈvaɪəθən /
noun
-
Bible a monstrous beast, esp a sea monster
-
any huge or powerful thing
Leviathan
Cultural
Discover More
Figuratively, a “leviathan” is any enormous beast.
Leviathan is a work on politics by the seventeenth-century English author Thomas Hobbes.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of leviathan
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English levyathan, from Late Latin leviathan, ultimately from Hebrew liwyāthān
Explanation
A leviathan is a giant sea creature. It can be real, like a whale, or mythical. Moby Dick is an example of a famous leviathan. The word comes from Hebrew livyathan which means a great sea serpent or sea monster. A real leviathan is the giant sea squid Architeuthis, which was photographed alive for the first time in 2005. A leviathan can also be something that is really, really big. The Titanic was a leviathan that now rests with leviathans.
Vocabulary lists containing leviathan
Lord of the Flies
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Rap Lyrics
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Refugee
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While the quartet — the first metal band to perform at Sphere — tore through the instrumental deep cut “The Call of Ktulu,” that drippy leviathan swatted at life-sized fighter jets on the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
It expanded into a $1.8 trillion leviathan through a series of big-ticket mergers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025
But — and this is one leviathan of a “but” — something else is starting to emerge in the polling.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
CEO Kim Bayley said gaming "continued to show its ability to connect with people" last year, and despite the modest growth the industry "remains a leviathan".
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2024
But from this vantage point she saw the wall had been crafted in the shape of a leviathan, a giant ice dragon circling the island and swallowing its own tail.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
Israel has halted production at its Karish and Leviathan fields, which will affect exports to Egypt and Jordan.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
This includes building a third pipeline from the Leviathan reservoir to the production platform, as well as increasing the transmission pipeline capacity between Israel and Egypt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
Their hardcore sound combined prog-rock, alternative and grunge - on albums such as Remission, Leviathan and Emperor of Sand - drawing in legions of metal fans and ultimately critical acclaim.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2025
Chevron's Leviathan field further north continues to be operational, with the CFO declining to speculate about possible interruptions because of the conflict.
From Reuters ● Oct. 27, 2023
Lord Quellon, White Widow, Lamentation, Woe, Leviathan, Iron Lady, Reapers Wind, and War- hammer, with six more ships behind, two of them storm- wracked and under tow.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft are the octogenarian owners, respectively, of the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots; both built leviathans for football stadiums while finding creative ways to expand the NFL brand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
In 2020, a team of marine biologists and computer scientists joined forces to analyze the click-clacking songs of sperm whales, the gray, block-shaped leviathans that swim in most of the world’s oceans.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2024
In his 1851 novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville describes right whales as “the most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly hunted by man.”
From National Geographic ● Jan. 25, 2024
Hogan’s team hopes to use that breather to fill in vital details about the Mekong’s lengthy list of leviathans.
From Science Magazine ● May 30, 2023
But such leviathans appeared only late in antiquity, and were exceptional.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
