elephantine

American  

[el-uh-fan-teen, -tahyn, -tin, el-uh-fuhn-teen, -tahyn] / ˌɛl əˈfæn tin, -taɪn, -tɪn, ˈɛl ə fənˌtin, -ˌtaɪn /

adjective

1. pertaining to or resembling an elephant.

2. huge, ponderous, or clumsy.

   elephantine movements; elephantine humor.

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elephantine British  

/ ˌɛlɪˈfæntaɪn /

adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or characteristic of an elephant or elephants

2. huge, clumsy, or ponderous

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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.

Example Sentences

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

As the 2000s wrapped up and the hip-hop aesthetic moved from elephantine jean shorts and Air Force 1s, Cena’s character became a more generic good guy in a colorful T-shirt.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 14, 2023

It turned out that, for a few crucial years in the late-Eisenhower and early-Kennedy era, Ellsberg was at the center of this story, and his memory was elephantine.

From Slate • Jun. 16, 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

He collected fragments from a pig-size guinea pig, armor plates from a tanklike armadillo, more elephantine bones from elephantine sloths, and crated and shipped them to England.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee