colossal
Americanadjective
-
extraordinarily great in size, extent, or degree; gigantic; huge.
-
of or resembling a colossus.
-
(initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to a classical order whose columns or pilasters span two or more stories of a building.
adjective
-
of immense size; huge; gigantic
-
(in figure sculpture) approximately twice life-size Compare heroic
-
Also: giant. architect of or relating to the order of columns and pilasters that extend more than one storey in a façade
Usage
What does colossal mean? Colossal describes something as being very large in size, degree, or amount, as in I went to a colossal shopping mall that stretched for a mile. If something is colossal, it is enormous, gigantic, or massive.Colossal can also be used to describe a large degree of something, that is, a large amount or a large extent, like a colossal amount of boxes or a colossal advantage in the playoffs.Less commonly, colossal describes something as resembling a colossus, which is a very large statue, as in The large man was so colossal that he blocked the entire doorway.Example: Tyrannosaurus rex was a colossal dinosaur that towered over many of the smaller animals.
Related Words
See gigantic.
Other Word Forms
- colossality noun
- colossally adverb
- supercolossal adjective
- supercolossally adverb
Etymology
Origin of colossal
First recorded in 1705–15; coloss(us) + -al 1
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.
This colossal waste has enormous economic costs and renders useless all the water and resources used to grow the food.
From Salon
But in this case, it comes from not knowing how long the high returns for colossal capex will last, after which Amazonian levels of free cash flow are inevitable.
From Barron's
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged last week huge government spending to boost the economy, insisting it was fiscally responsible despite fears it would worsen the country's colossal debt burden.
From Barron's
At its most insightful, his book reveals a colossal dissonance between a person and a persona.
One-quarter of its time will be devoted to eavesdropping on another hidden component of the universe: the colossal black holes lurking at the centers of galaxies with masses of millions or billions of suns.
From Science Magazine
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
