elephantine
Americanadjective
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pertaining to or resembling an elephant.
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huge, ponderous, or clumsy.
elephantine movements; elephantine humor.
adjective
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denoting, relating to, or characteristic of an elephant or elephants
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huge, clumsy, or ponderous
Etymology
Origin of elephantine
1620–30; < Latin elephantinus < Greek elephántinos. See elephant, -ine 1
Explanation
Something elephantine is huge, bulky, and a little clumsy, much like an elephant. Riding a bicycle in a rainstorm while trying to hold an elephantine super-sized soda is a bad idea. An elephant is one of the largest animals in the world — even the babies weigh more than most people! So, things that are also enormous can be called elephantine. Other big animals — like whales — are elephantine. A cake that could feed fifty people is elephantine. If you owe a lot of money, that’s an elephantine debt. Elephantine things can also be unwieldy and bulky or just plain huge. Anything elephantine is extra-large.
Vocabulary lists containing elephantine
A Lexical Zoo of Animal Adjectives
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More Animal Adjectives
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"Joyas Voladoras" by Brian Doyle
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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.
It is often assumed that elephantine ponderousness is the price that must be paid for their storytelling heft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
“My wobbling, elephantine car is no match for his agile V12 Mercedes, but I somehow keep up,” he writes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
By the 1960s, Mr. Lorayne was best known for holding audiences rapt with feats of memory that bordered on the elephantine.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2023
Despite Casey’s protestations, the dog somehow ends up in her backpack, and when Clifford blows up to elephantine proportions, it sets off a series of wild adventures through the city.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 9, 2021
Shifting from one hip to the other in his lumbering, elephantine fashion, Ignatius sent waves of flesh rippling beneath the tweed and flannel, waves that broke upon buttons and seams.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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.
