# colossal
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kəˈlɒsəl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒsəl

### Adjective

colossal (comparative more colossal, superlative most colossal)
* 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.”
* 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."

#### Synonyms

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

#### Derived terms

* colossally
* colossalness
* colossal squid
* hypercolossal
* mega-colossal
* supercolossal
* ultracolossal

#### Related terms

* colosseum
* colossus

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* alcosols

## French
### Etymology

From colosse +‎ -al.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɔ.lɔ.sal/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

colossal (feminine colossale, masculine plural colossaux, feminine plural colossales)
* colossal, huge
    Synonyms: énorme, gigantesque, titanesque

#### Derived terms

* calmar colossal

#### Descendants

* → English: colossal
* → German: kolossal

### Further reading

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

## Italian
### Etymology

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

### Noun

colossal m (invariable)
* (film, theater) high-budget film or play with a high production value, ensemble cast, etc.

## Portuguese
### Etymology

From colosso +‎ -al.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ko.loˈsaw/ [ko.loˈsaʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /ku.luˈsal/ [ku.luˈsaɫ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /ku.luˈsal/ [ku.luˈsaɫ]
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /ku.luˈsa.li/
* Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
* Hyphenation: co‧los‧sal

### Adjective

colossal m or f (plural colossais)
* colossal (extremely large)
    Synonyms: gigante, enorme

### Further reading

* “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