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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
Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025
Of course, the profits would come in the form of tax revenue from the gargantuan long-term economic impact of the project — not from a spike in stock prices.
—Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 24 Oct. 2025
The slide created a gargantuan splash – a hyper-local, but massive tsunami that ran up the opposite mountain slope, leveling everything in its path as high as the Empire State Building.
—Ella Nilsen, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2025
Spanning a whopping 26,000 square feet, the gargantuan pad has seven bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms, and a suite of amenities suited for A-list stars.
—Tori Latham, Robb Report, 20 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Gargantuan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gargantuan. Accessed 29 Oct. 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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