gargantuan

American  

[gahr-gan-choo-uhn] / gɑrˈgæn tʃu ən /

adjective

1. gigantic; enormous; colossal.

   a gargantuan task.

   Synonyms:

   elephantine, vast, immense, mammoth, huge

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gargantuan British  

/ ɡɑːˈɡæntjʊən /

adjective

1. (sometimes capital) huge; enormous

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Usage

What does gargantuan mean? Gargantuan means extraordinarily large or huge. Some things are more than huge—they’re gargantuan. The word is commonly applied to physical objects whose size makes you marvel with awe. Blue whales are gargantuan. Skyscrapers are gargantuan. The Grand Canyon is gargantuan. But it can also be applied to intangible things, as in With all the champagne and caviar that we ordered, the bill for dinner is going to be gargantuan. It is especially associated with things involving food, such as a gargantuan appetite or a gargantuan meal. Similar adjectives are gigantic, giant, colossal, and mammoth. A more formal synonym is massive. More informal synonyms are humongous and ginormous. Something might be considered gargantuan only in comparison to other similar things. For example, an unusually large grapefruit might be described as gargantuan even though it’s not all that big in general—it’s simply gargantuan compared to normal-sized grapefruits. Still, it’s usually used to describe things that are objectively huge, like redwood trees or the planet Jupiter. Gargantuan is sometimes casually used to mean extremely important or significant—much like the figurative use of big and huge. Sometimes, this is negative, as in gargantuan error or gargantuan failure. Example: You don’t realize how gargantuan the sun is until you see an image of a planet next to it for scale.

Etymology

Origin of gargantuan

First recorded in 1585–95; Gargantu(a) + -an

Explanation

Whether you're talking about your gargantuan appetite or a gargantuan building, use the word gargantuan to describe something so big that big just isn't, well, big enough to accurately describe it. The word gargantuan can refer to an object that's physically massive in size or it can describe something that you perceive, like a feeling or an expectation. For example, you might have a gargantuan misunderstanding with your best friend. The word gargantuan came into English in the 16th century from Gargantua, a character in a series of French novels by the author Francois Rabelais. The books followed the adventures of two giants who were father and son.

Example Sentences

Some may be tiny, like the orchid babies nursing on wood-eating fungi; others may be gargantuan, like the Posidonia australis.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

But even they may be stumped when faced with the gargantuan challenge of coming up with a deserving story to encapsulate the unique feat of producing 500 episodes of television.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

In the Champions League, Bodø also faced a gargantuan uphill task.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 25, 2026

Financial markets may also be nervous about Japan's public finances and its gargantuan debt pile if Takaichi decides to cut taxes and boost spending.

From Barron's • Feb. 9, 2026

But only slightly higher, at 19,000 feet, the ropes brought us to the base of a gargantuan, perilously balanced serac.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• colossal
• enormous
• gigantic
• huge
• humongous
• immense
• mammoth
• massive
• monstrous
• monumental
• prodigious
• towering
• tremendous
• vast