giant
Americannoun
-
giants
plural
-
(in folklore) a being with human form but superhuman size, strength, etc.
-
a person or thing of unusually great size, power, importance, etc.; major figure; legend.
a giant in her field; an intellectual giant.
-
(often initial capital letter) any of the Gigantes.
-
Mining. monitor.
-
Astronomy. giant star.
adjective
-
unusually large, great, or strong; gigantic; huge.
-
greater or more eminent than others.
noun
-
Also (feminine): giantess. a mythical figure of superhuman size and strength, esp in folklore or fairy tales
-
a person or thing of exceptional size, reputation, etc
a giant in nuclear physics
-
Greek myth any of the large and powerful offspring of Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth) who rebelled against the Olympian gods but were defeated in battle
-
pathol a person suffering from gigantism
-
astronomy See giant star
-
mining another word for monitor
adjective
-
remarkably or supernaturally large
-
architect another word for colossal
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of giant
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English geant, from Old French, from Latin gigant-, stem of gigās, from Greek Gígās; replacing Old English gigant, from Latin, as above
Explanation
A giant is someone that's unusually enormous. You can also use the word giant to describe something or someone that is really big. That giant green guy over there? That's the jolly green giant. Ho ho ho. A star basketball player might be described as a giant, or a stunningly tall redwood tree, or even a very large business. These giants come from the giants of mythology, huge creatures that are featured in fairy and folk tales and inspired by the giants of Greek myth, who were a separate race of strong, aggressive gods. The Greek root is Gigas, with the plural form Gigantes.
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.
See Examples For:
The $4.3 trillion chip giant lacks a chairman and a succession plan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Last year the Danish developer Ørsted scrapped plans for Hornsea 4, a giant wind farm off the Yorkshire coast, blaming soaring supply chain costs.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026
Now the temple itself has been restored, in what Coudry said was like assembling "a giant 3D puzzle without a reference model".
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026
On Sunday, news broke that the U.S.-based tech giant Nvidia is looking into an affair its CEO, Jensen Huang, had with an alleged Chinese spy.
From Slate ● Nov. 9, 2026
Giant hydrangeas lean over, unable to hold high their giant blooms of pink, white, and lavender — now even heavier with the morning dew — from filling the spaces lining the path.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Anthropic also announced a slew of separate deals with major tech giants to buy a total of $26 billion worth of its Class N stock after the offering is completed.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026
Electric-vehicle exports have also ballooned as Chinese giants like BYD conquer global markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026
Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei -- which are heavily weighted with AI-linked tech giants -- led the advances.
From Barron's ● Nov. 9, 2026
Several of Presley’s rights holders and Eight Mile Style also recently sued other artificial intelligence giants.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026
The second root goes to the realm of the frost giants, to the well that belongs to Mimir.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
