giant
Americannoun
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giants
plural
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(in folklore) a being with human form but superhuman size, strength, etc.
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a person or thing of unusually great size, power, importance, etc.; major figure; legend.
a giant in her field; an intellectual giant.
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(often initial capital letter) any of the Gigantes.
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Mining. monitor.
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Astronomy. giant star.
adjective
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unusually large, great, or strong; gigantic; huge.
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greater or more eminent than others.
noun
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Also (feminine): giantess. a mythical figure of superhuman size and strength, esp in folklore or fairy tales
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a person or thing of exceptional size, reputation, etc
a giant in nuclear physics
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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
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pathol a person suffering from gigantism
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astronomy See giant star
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mining another word for monitor
adjective
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remarkably or supernaturally large
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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:
Investors have been excited recently about Marvell’s recently expanded partnership with Google, through which the technology giant got a warrant to purchase Marvell shares and the companies agreed to work together on Google’s custom-chip program.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
Her trademark polka dots covered entire galleries and giant sculptures, and she also used mirrors and lights to create the effect of shapes and patterns disappearing into infinity.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Nvidia is set to buy artificial intelligence platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, news outlet The Information reported on Wednesday, as the US chipmaking giant seeks to diversify.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
The fight for restitution is on at a fallen green-energy giant, following one of the most disastrous commodity trades of the decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Suddenly Red groaned, and I looked up to see a tall, skinny man leaning against a tree, a giant sack flung over his shoulder.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
The incident fed worries that AI giants cannot keep their own models under control, as similar episodes have been reported at Anthropic and China's Moonshot AI.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Herrera says: "You can now see the difference between Arsenal and Real Zaragoza - but we used to fight against those giants."
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Musical giants such as the Byrds, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger had covered “Deportee,” but no one with Parton’s mainstream fame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
King Slide’s gross margin rose to 87% last quarter, surpassing the gross margins of chip giants Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
From these, Ymir’s children, all giants are descended.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
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.
