# giant
## 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: /ˈd͡ʒaɪ.ənt/
** (dialectal, nonstandard) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒaɪnt/
* (Canada) IPA: /ˈd͡ʒʌɪ.ənt/, /ˈd͡ʒaɪ.ənt/
** (Ontario, nonstandard) IPA: [ˈd͡ʒəɪ̯(ə)nt]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪənt
* Hyphenation: gi‧ant

### Noun

giant (plural giants)
* A mythical human of very great size.
* (mythology, fantasy) Specifically:
** Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
** A jotun.
* A very tall and large person.
** 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 65:"It's barbarous, Norsus." "It's Rome," said the giant flatly.
* A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
* (astronomy) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (e.g. red giant, blue giant).
* (computing) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
* A very large organization.
    The retail giant is set to acquire two more struggling high-street chains.
** 2020 May 20, “J&J to sell baby powder in UK despite stopping US sales”, in BBC‎, London: BBC, retrieved 2020-05-22:Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson says it will continue to sell its talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder in the UK and the rest of the world, despite stopping sales in the US and Canada.
* A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
** 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […].
** 1988, Thomas Dolby, Airhead:she's not the intellectual giant
* (gymnastics) A maneuver involving a full rotation around an axis while fully extended.

#### Synonyms

See also: Thesaurus:giant

#### Derived terms

* Aphrodite Giant
* bright giant
* Easter giant
* frost giant
* gas giant
* gentle giant
* giantdom
* giantesque
* gianthood
* giantin
* giantish
* giantize
* giantkiller
* giant-killer
* giant-killing
* giantkind
* giantlike
* giantling
* giantlore
* giantry
* Giant's Causeway
* giantship
* girus
* hypergiant
* ice giant
* Jersey Giant
* subgiant
* supergiant
* tech giant
* Trembling Giant

#### Further reading

* giant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Adjective

giant (not comparable)
* Very large.
** 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters …. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas – giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Antonyms

* dwarf
* midget

#### Derived terms

* Aldabra giant tortoise
* Argentine giant tegu
* Asian giant hornet
* asymptotic giant branch
* Baoruco giant anole
* Chao Phraya giant catfish
* Eastern Pacific giant conch
* fluted giant clam
* Galápagos giant tortoise
* Galapagos giant tortoise
* giant anteater
* giant armadillo
* giant banjo frog
* giant barb
* giant barnacle
* giant beaver
* giant burrowing cockroach
* giant butterbur
* giant cane
* giant cell
* giant chinquapin
* giant clam
* giant coot
* giant daikon
* giant deer
* giant elk
* giant elliptical galaxy
* giantess
* giant fennel
* giant forest genet
* giant forest hog
* giant frog
* giant green slantface
* giant grenadier
* giant groundsel
* giant hermit crab
* giant heron
* giant hogweed
* giant house spider
* giant hyena
* giant hyssop
* giantism
* giant isopod
* giant kelp
* giant kelpfish
* giant kettle
* giant kingfisher
* giant lacewing
* giant leopard moth
* giantly
* giant magnetoresistance
* giant molecule
* Giant Mountains
* giant mouse lemur
* giant mud crab
* giant mudfish
* giantness
* giant oarfish
* giant octopus
* giant otter
* giant pacarana
* giant Pacific octopus
* giant panda
* giant pangasius
* giant pangolin
* giant peacock moth
* giant periwinkle
* giant petrel
* giant phantom jelly
* giant planet
* giant platelet disorder
* giant powder
* giant puffball
* giant quasar
* giant radio galaxy
* giant rattail
* giant redwood
* giant reed
* giant rhubarb
* giant roundworm
* giant salamander
* giant sequoia
* giant set
* giant slalom
* giant snakehead
* giant squid
* giant star
* giant swallowtail
* giant taro
* giant thorny-headed worm of swine
* giant tortoise
* giant tree frog
* giant trevally
* giant tube worm
* giant virus
* giant walking stick
* giant water bug
* giant weta
* giant white radish
* giant wood rail
* Japanese giant hornet
* Japanese giant salamander
* La Gomera giant lizard
* nettle-leaf giant hyssop
* Oriental giant squirrel
* parallel giant slalom
* pygmy giant panda
* sleeping giant
* South Island giant moa
* spotted giant flying squirrel
* Tenerife giant lizard
* Wallace's giant bee

#### Translations
### Anagrams

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