giant

English Online Dictionary. What means giant‎? What does giant mean?

English

Alternative forms

• giaunt (obsolete)

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): [ˈd͡ʒəɪ̯(ə)nt]
• 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.
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 organization.
8. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
9. (gymnastics) A maneuver involving a full rotation around an axis while fully extended.

Synonyms

See also: Thesaurus:giant

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• giant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Adjective

giant (not comparable)

1. Very large.

Synonyms

• colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
• See also Thesaurus:large

Antonyms

• dwarf
• midget

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Ngāti, TA'ing, TAing, Taing, anti-g, tagin, tangi, tiang, tinga