colossus

American  

[kuh-los-uhs] / kəˈlɒs əs /

noun

colossi, plural colossuses plural

1. (initial capital letter) the legendary bronze statue of Helios at Rhodes.

2. any statue of gigantic size.

3. anything colossal, gigantic, or very powerful.

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colossus British  

/ kəˈlɒsəs /

noun

1. something very large, esp a statue

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• colossuses
  plural
• colossi
  plural

Etymology

Origin of colossus

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

Explanation

The original colossus was an enormous statue that was supposed to have guarded the ancient Greek island and city of Rhodes. Now, though, we use the noun colossus for someone of huge importance, reputation, or influence. In the world of American music, Louis Armstrong is a colossus. He invented or perfected many of the elements of what we now call jazz — there's probably no figure of greater importance in that field. Even the second most important athlete in the world seems small in comparison to the colossus that is Muhammad Ali. He is, quite simply, the greatest. In the ancient world, Rome was an imperial colossus. Few nations could rival its strength, size, or colossal growth.

Example Sentences

The deal resembles one struck with AI giant Anthropic, in which SpaceX leased compute capacity at its Colossus data centers in Memphis, Tennessee for $1.25 billion a month.

From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026

It is clear that I am the only person at Trump Doral who has taken an acute interest in Don Colossus.

From Slate • Jun. 2, 2026

Anthropic last month agreed to purchase access to AI compute capacity in SpaceX’s Colossus I and Colossus II data centers at the cost of $1.25 billion a month through May 2029.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 1, 2026

The company later struck a deal worth nearly $50 billion with SpaceX to access the computing firepower of the rocket-and-AI company’s Colossus data center.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026

In 1654 Walter Charleton called for ‘a Colossus of Gold’ to be erected in Galileo’s honour.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton