English Explanatory Dictionary

giant

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A mythical human or humanoid of very great size.
  2. Specifically:
  3. Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
  4. An eoten or jotun.
  5. A very tall and large person.
  6. A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
  7. A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature.
  8. An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
  9. A very large organization.
  10. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
  11. A maneuver involving a full rotation around an axis while fully extended.
adj
  1. Very large.
noun
  1. A player for the San Francisco Giants.
  2. A player for the New York Giants.
  3. A Gigas, a member of the Gigantes, a race of giants who defied the gods.

Pronunciation

/ˈd͡ʒaɪ.ənt/ /ˈd͡ʒaɪnt/ /ˈd͡ʒʌɪ.ənt/ [ˈd͡ʒəɪ̯(ə)nt] En-us-giant.ogg

Word forms

giant giants giaunt

Etymology

From Middle English geaunt, geant, from Old French geant, gaiant (Modern French géant) from Vulgar Latin *gagās, gagant-, from Latin gigās, gigant-, from Ancient Greek γίγας (gígas, “giant”). Cognate to giga- (“1,000,000,000”). Displaced native Old English ent, eoten, and þyrs. Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree-man”), ettin ("a giant"), and thurse ("a giant").

Synonyms

bulk giant behemoth Brobdingnagian colossus ettin Goliath hulk hunk jumbo leviathan mammoth mastodon monster mountain thurse titan whale whopper giant star colossal enormous gigantic immense prodigious vast

Antonyms

dwarf elf midget

Related words

big

Derived words

Aphrodite Giant bright giant Easter giant friendly giant frost giant gas giant gentle giant giantdom giantesque gianthood giantin giantish giantize giant kill giantkiller giant-killer giant-killing giantkind giantlike giantling giantlore giant maiden giantry Giant's Causeway Giants Creek giantship girus hypergiant ice giant Jersey Giant subgiant supergiant tech giant Trembling Giant Aldabra giant tortoise Amazon giant leech Argentine giant tegu Asian giant hornet asymptotic giant branch Baoruco giant anole Chao Phraya giant catfish Eastern Pacific giant conch fluted giant clam Galápagos giant tortoise Galapagos giant tortoise giant anteater giant armadillo giant banjo frog giant barb giant barnacle giant beaver giant burrowing cockroach giant butterbur giant cane giant cell giant cheetah giant chinquapin giant clam giant coot giant daikon
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on G Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary