Goliath

American  

[guh-lahy-uhth] / gəˈlaɪ əθ /

noun

1. (in the Bible) the giant warrior of the Philistines whom David killed with a stone from a sling.

2. Usually goliath a giant.

3. Usually goliath a very large, powerful, or influential person or thing.

   a neighborhood grocery competing against the supermarket goliaths.

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Goliath British  

/ ɡəˈlaɪəθ /

noun

1. Old Testament a Philistine giant from Gath who terrorized the Hebrews until he was killed by David with a stone from his sling (I Samuel 17)

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Etymology

Origin of Goliath

Ultimately from Hebrew Gōlyāth, of uncertain origin

Explanation

Someone or something with an unusually large amount of strength is a goliath. Your soccer team might be nervous if you show up to a game and the other team's players are a bunch of goliaths. This adjective comes from the Biblical figure Goliath, who despite his greater size and strength was defeated by the young David. So while it's fine to use goliath to simply mean "giant" or "strong person," it's even more fitting for something supposedly strong and unbeatable that's actually vulnerable. You might challenge a goliath of a developer that's threatening to cut down the oldest maple tree in town — and, like David, you just might win.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Goliath

That would suggest strong growth, but Instinct is easily the David next to Meta’s Goliath.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

Much of the venture capital establishment didn’t put money into Anthropic because they viewed it as a David to OpenAI’s Goliath.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The Harland and Wolff shipyard is to spend £3m refurbishing its famous yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Resisting the attention economy isn’t a human vs. machine battle, but a David and Goliath one.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

Officer Galluzzo, like Goliath standing with his hand already on his weapon, sizing me up.

From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds