giant

1 of 2

noun

gi·​ant ˈjī-ənt How to pronounce giant (audio)
plural giants
1
: a legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength
2
a
: a living being of great size
b
: a person of extraordinary powers
3
: something unusually large or powerful
4
astronomy : a star of high luminosity and relatively great mass and size
a red giant
As it exhausts its hydrogen fuel, changes in its interior trigger a transformation from a blue giant to a yellow supergiant in only a few hundred thousand years.James B. Kaler
compare dwarf sense 4a, supergiant
giantlike adjective

giant

2 of 2

adjective

: having extremely large size, proportion, or power

Examples of giant in a Sentence

Noun the land of the giants the Great Pyramids of Egypt are giants among the world's architectural wonders Adjective a giant-size box of detergent the giant sycamore tree that dwarfs our house is almost 250 years old
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The boom has been led by U.S. tech giants such as Google and start-ups like OpenAI. Cade Metz, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024 The park is now operated by theme park giant Six Flags, which announced a merger with Cedar Fair in 2023. Joseph Hernandez, Kansas City Star, 22 Mar. 2024 Critics have accused the tech giant of undermining smaller companies by barring app makers from using outside payment systems and charging hefty fees on transactions. Perry Stein, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2024 Disney’s stock has rallied by more than 30% over the last six months, but ISS noted the Burbank giant still lags behind the S&P 500 over an extended period — until last October when the activist Peltz unveiled his second proxy battle for a seat on Disney’s board. Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024 The legal action could weigh on Apple’s stock price, which currently values the company at just under $3 trillion, and could force changes to policies, business strategies, products and applications by the tech giant. Brian Fung, CNN, 21 Mar. 2024 Apple is the second tech giant the DOJ has taken on in recent years after filing two separate antitrust suits against Google over the past two administrations. Lauren Feiner, The Verge, 21 Mar. 2024 Among other networks and streamers with multiple noms, Netflix earned 35, a record for the streaming giant, Sky Max 31, ITV1 got 23, Channel 4 earned 16, Apple TV+ 13, Disney+ eight, Prime Video four, and Channel 5 two. Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Mar. 2024 China’s social media, games and video giant Tencent saw 2023 revenues advance by 10% to $84.6 billion (RMB609 billion). Patrick Frater, Variety, 20 Mar. 2024
Adjective
This sleek option that looks like an expensive name-brand version at a fraction of the price measures just 8 inches by 2 inches, which is just enough to hold your phone, keys, and cash — no digging deep into the vast abyss of a giant bag required. Brittany Vanderbill, Travel + Leisure, 24 Mar. 2024 Highlights include an egg hunt, giant Easter egg painting, bunny hop sack races, face painting, giveaways and photos with the Easter Bunny. Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Mar. 2024 With a giant beam of 75 feet and a generous interior volume of 4,650 GT, Spear offers abundant living space onboard. Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 22 Mar. 2024 But Republican critics noted that the process of funding the government had not changed much — Mr. Johnson pushed through two giant bills instead of a single one — and said their speaker should have fought harder for their priorities. Catie Edmondson, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024 Fighters can use their shield as a stepping stone to boost teammates to higher ground on giant enemies while mages can augment weapons to deal elemental damage. Gieson Cacho, The Mercury News, 22 Mar. 2024 More than half of the Wonder Flower prototypes didn’t make it into the final game, Mouri said, including one that turned Mario’s head into a giant block that enemies have to eat. Megan Farokhmanesh, WIRED, 22 Mar. 2024 Crane flies, also known as mosquito hawks thanks to their resemblance to giant mosquitoes, are out in force right now. The Arizona Republic, 12 Mar. 2024 The line was a callback to a cosmetic product Jasmine found under the seat of Gino’s car — sparking a giant argument between the couple. Kelly Wynne, Peoplemag, 11 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'giant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English giaunt, from Anglo-French geant, from Latin gigant-, gigas, from Greek

First Known Use

Noun

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of giant was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near giant

Cite this Entry

“Giant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/giant. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

giant

1 of 2 noun
gi·​ant ˈjī-ənt How to pronounce giant (audio)
1
: a very large and strong being of legend
2
: a person or thing that is very large or powerful

giant

2 of 2 adjective
: much larger or more powerful than ordinary

More from Merriam-Webster on giant

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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