adjective
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unusually large; huge; vast
-
without limits; immeasurable
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informal very good; excellent
Related Words
See huge.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of immense
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin immēnsus “huge, boundless, immeasurable,” equivalent to im- “un-” + mēnsus, past participle of mētīrī “to measure”; see im- 2
Explanation
Immense means very large in size, amount, or degree. You might describe the ocean as immense, or your homework load, or the slice of cake your brother took, leaving you a tiny sliver. This word has an immense number of near synonyms: huge, great, enormous, vast, gigantic, colossal, mammoth, copious, tremendous are a few of the more common ones. If you're having immense difficulty deciding which word to use, just plain "very big" might do.
Vocabulary lists containing immense
List 4
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"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury
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myPerspectives 8.1
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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.
"This loss is immense, but the path forward continues until liberation."
From Barron's • May 16, 2026
Transformers, the technology underlying the LLM, process text by converting every word into a number or token, and expend immense time and power figuring out which words are related.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026
Huang’s response was to the effect that China already has immense and highly advanced technological capabilities, “they have an abundance of energy, they have plenty of chips, they’ve got most of the AI researchers.”
From MarketWatch • May 13, 2026
The club is performing well below expectations and the pressure, therefore, on Mourinho to reclaim domestic and European dominance will be immense.
From BBC • May 12, 2026
The bard heaved an immense sigh of relief.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
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.
