leviathan

American  

[li-vahy-uh-thuhn] / lɪˈvaɪ ə θən /

noun

1. Bible. Often Leviathan a sea monster.

2. any huge marine animal, as the whale.

3. anything of immense size and power, as a huge, oceangoing ship.

4. Leviathan, a philosophical work (1651) by Thomas Hobbes dealing with the political organization of society.

---

leviathan British  

/ lɪˈvaɪəθən /

noun

1. Bible a monstrous beast, esp a sea monster

2. any huge or powerful thing

---

Leviathan Cultural  

1. A sea monster mentioned in the Book of Job, where it is associated with the forces of chaos and evil.

---

Discover More

Figuratively, a “leviathan” is any enormous beast.

Leviathan is a work on politics by the seventeenth-century English author Thomas Hobbes.

Etymology

Origin of leviathan

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English levyathan, from Late Latin leviathan, ultimately from Hebrew liwyāthān

Example Sentences

It expanded into a $1.8 trillion leviathan through a series of big-ticket mergers.

From The Wall Street Journal

As Ms. Aikin shows, in many ways the modern governmental leviathan would not be possible without the manifold collections and reference services of the Library of Congress.

From The Wall Street Journal

A stiff primary challenge from the liberal leviathan, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

From Los Angeles Times

In 2020, a team of marine biologists and computer scientists joined forces to analyze the click-clacking songs of sperm whales, the gray, block-shaped leviathans that swim in most of the world’s oceans.

From New York Times

But — and this is one leviathan of a “but” — something else is starting to emerge in the polling.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• colossal
• enormous
• extensive
• gargantuan
• giant
• gigantic
• great
• humongous
• immense
• magnificent
• mammoth
• massive
• monstrous
• monumental
• towering
• tremendous
• vast