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Gargantua is the name of a giant king in François Rabelais's 16th-century satiric novel Gargantua, the second part of a five-volume series about the giant and his son Pantagruel. All of the details of Gargantua's life befit a giant. He rides a colossal mare whose tail switches so violently that it fells the entire forest of Orleans. He has an enormous appetite, such that in one incident he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua led to the adjective gargantuan, which since William Shakespeare's time has been used for anything of tremendous size or volume.
Examples of gargantuan in a Sentence
James Powel, USA Today, 17 May 2025
China has approved the construction of yet another hydropower dam, now a gargantuan project that will have about triple the capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the largest in the world.
—Suwanna Gauntlett Upjohn, Forbes.com, 15 May 2025
Spread evenly throughout the Bills’ 2025 regular season is the Super Series, five gargantuan opponents in an otherwise dull schedule.
—Tim Graham, New York Times, 15 May 2025
World & Nation Trump plans to announce that the U.S. will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, officials say
May 7, 2025
Though the deals appear gargantuan, experts say financial realities will cut them down to size.
—Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for gargantuan
Cite this Entry
“Gargantuan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gargantuan. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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gargantuan
adjective
from Gargantua, a giant with an enormous appetite in books by the French author François Rabelais
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