giant

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See also: Giant

English

Alternative forms

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. Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree-man”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒaɪ.ənt/
    • (dialectal, nonstandard) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒaɪnt/
  • (Canada) IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒʌɪ.ənt/, /ˈd͡ʒaɪ.ənt/
    • (Ontario, nonstandard) IPA(key):
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪənt
  • Hyphenation: gi‧ant

Noun

giant (plural giants)

  1. A mythical human of very great size.
  2. (mythology, fantasy) Specifically:
    1. Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
    2. A jotun.
  3. A very tall and large person.
    • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 65:
      "It's barbarous, Norsus." "It's Rome," said the giant flatly.
  4. A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
  5. (astronomy) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (e.g. red giant, blue giant).
  6. (computing) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
  7. A very large organisation.
    The retail giant is set to acquire two more struggling high-street chains.
    • 2020 May 20, “J&J to sell baby powder in UK despite stopping US sales”, in BBC‎, London: BBC, retrieved 2020-05-22:
      Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson says it will continue to sell its talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder in the UK and the rest of the world, despite stopping sales in the US and Canada.
  8. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC:
      But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […].
    • 1988, Thomas Dolby, Airhead:
      she's not the intellectual giant
  9. (gymnastics) A maneuver involving a full rotation around an axis while fully extended.

Synonyms

See also: Thesaurus:giant

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

giant (not comparable)

  1. Very large.
    • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:
      The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters …. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas – giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.

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