colossus

[ kuh-los-uhs ]

noun

, plural co·los·si [k, uh, -, los, -ahy], co·los·sus·es.

1. (initial capital letter) the legendary bronze statue of Helios at Rhodes. Compare Seven Wonders of the World.
2. any statue of gigantic size.
3. anything colossal, gigantic, or very powerful.

colossus

/ kəˈlɒsəs /

noun

1. something very large, esp a statue

Word History and Origins

Origin of colossus¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek kolossós statue, image, presumably < a pre-Hellenic Mediterranean language

Word History and Origins

Origin of colossus¹

C14: from Latin, from Greek kolossos

Example Sentences

The colossus at the industry’s center was Microsoft, led by the most famous software geek of all, Bill Gates.

From MIT Technology Review

The 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas followed the classic General Electric industrial conglomerate model of combining several different businesses into a colossus under a single corporate management.

From The Daily Beast

That phase of colossus creation appears to have ended long ago.

From Quanta Magazine

On Monday, S&P Global announced it will merge with IHS Markit in a $44 billion all-stock deal, in the biggest corporate tie-up of 2020, creating a financial data colossus.

From Washington Post

When he brought the idea of the colossus to America, the Civil War had ended just six years earlier.

From The Daily Beast

He first pitched his idea of a female harbor colossus to Egypt but the deal fell through.

From The Daily Beast

The literary world he helped found and nurture, and whose landscape he bestrode like the colossus he was—that world is gone.

From The Daily Beast

And Bishop, Colossus, Warpath, Blink, Sunspot, Quiksilver, Stryker and Havoc will all be there too.

From The Daily Beast

Edmund Morgan, 97 Diminutive, almost elfin in appearance, he bestrode his field like a colossus.

From The Daily Beast

He believes, he has an instinct, that here is the heel of the German Colossus, otherwise immune to our arrows.

From Project Gutenberg

He beckoned to a superb officer, splendid in his trappings—a blue-eyed colossus of nearly six-feet-six.

From Project Gutenberg

Shelby thought that there was a slight chance that the colossus might be able to read his lips even though he could not hear.

From Project Gutenberg

The ungainly, lumbering motor-boat, with a hulking colossus balanced at the tiller, dropped behind.

From Project Gutenberg

The most eminent of this kind was the Colossus of Rhodes, a brazen statue of Apollo, one of the wonders of the world.

From Project Gutenberg