ginormous

[jahy-nawr-muhs]

adjective

Informal.

1. extremely large; huge.

ginormous

/ dʒaɪˈnɔːməs /

adjective

1. informal,  very large

Word History and Origins

Origin of ginormous¹

First recorded in 1940–45; gi(gantic) + (e)normous

Word History and Origins

Origin of ginormous¹

C20: blend of giant or gigantic and enormous

Example Sentences

Trump is of course personally too ignorant to understand that Canadians have historical reasons to fear the ginormous superpower to the south, and too stupid to care.

From Salon

Meanwhile, a company called Austin Water & Power wants to run a pipeline into Ransom Canyon’s ginormous aquifer.

From Los Angeles Times

I immediately feel like I'm in a ginormous, stressful traffic jam.

From BBC

“We didn’t have the deep pockets of a ginormous corporation to ride that out,” Bushnell says of Two Bit’s COVID-19-induced closures, for which the backlog of bills eventually became too much to bear.

From Los Angeles Times

Lamb describes the sandwich as “ginormous” and “over-the-top good.”

From Salon

Related Words

• colossal 
• considerable 
• enormous 
• gigantic 
• humongous 
• monumental 
• sizeable 
• tremendous 
• vast 
• whopping 

When To Use

What does ginormous mean?

Ginormous is a very informal way of saying extraordinarily large or huge. Some things are more than huge—they’re ginormous.Ginormous is a blend of giant or gigantic and enormous—all three of which can be used as synonyms. A similarly informal synonym is humongous. Other synonyms include gargantuan, colossal, and mammoth.The word is most often applied to physical objects whose size makes you marvel with awe. Blue whales are ginormous. Skyscrapers are ginormous. The Grand Canyon is ginormous.But it can also be applied to intangible things, as in With all the champagne and caviar that we ordered, the bill for dinner is going to be ginormous. Like any adjective used to describe something’s size, ginormous is often used in a way that’s relative to the situation. Many things described as ginormous are objectively huge, like redwood trees or the planet Jupiter. But something might be considered ginormous only in comparison to other similar things. For example, an unusually large grapefruit might be described as ginormous even though it’s not all that big in general—it’s simply ginormous compared to normal-sized grapefruits.Ginormous is sometimes casually used to mean extremely important or significant—much like the figurative use of big and huge, as in This is a ginormous win for the franchise. Sometimes, this is negative, as in ginormous error, ginormous failure, or ginormous misunderstanding. Because it’s so informal, it’s unlikely to be used in very serious situations.Example: You don’t realize how ginormous the sun is until you see an image of a planet next to it for scale.