colossal

From French colossal, formed from Latin colossus, from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, “giant statue”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɒsəl/
• (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɑsəl/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɒsəl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɔsəl/

  • Audio (Queensland):

    (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /kəˈlɒsəl/
• Rhymes: -ɒsəl

colossal (comparative more colossal, superlative most colossal)

1. Extremely large or on a great scale.

   A single puppy can make a colossal mess.

   • 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:

     Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

   • 2017 April 23, “Ivanka & Jared”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 10, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     What is wrong with you, you colossal fucking creep⁉ You found the only possible wrong answer to that question! “What’s your favorite color? Hitler.”

2. Amazingly spectacular; extraordinary; epic.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "It's just the very biggest thing that I ever heard of!" said I, though it was my journalistic rather than my scientific enthusiasm that was roused. "It is colossal. You are a Columbus of science who has discovered a lost world."

• (extremely large): enormous, giant, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
• See also Thesaurus:large

• colosseum
• colossus

• alcosols

From colosse +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɔ.sal/

• Audio:

  (file)

colossal (feminine colossale, masculine plural colossaux, feminine plural colossales)

1. colossal, huge

   Synonyms: énorme, gigantesque, titanesque

• calmar colossal

• → English: colossal
• → German: kolossal

• “colossal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Pseudo-anglicism, derived from colossal. First attested in 1986.

colossal m (invariable)

1. (film, theater) high-budget film or play with a high production value, ensemble cast, etc.

From colosso +‎ -al.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: co‧los‧sal

colossal m or f (plural colossais)

1. colossal (extremely large)

   Synonyms: gigante, enorme

• “colossal”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “colossal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025