humongous

English

Alternative forms

• humungous

Etymology

Of expressive origin, likely inspired by huge, with the termination of monstrous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌhjuːˈmʌŋɡəs/, /ˌhjuːˈmɒŋɡəs/
  • (Northern England) IPA^(key): [çu̟ːˈmʊŋɡəs]
  • (Southern England) IPA^(key): [ˌçu̟ːˈmɐŋɡəs]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋɡəs

Adjective

humongous (comparative more humongous, superlative most humongous)

1. (informal) Of an extremely large size.

   Synonyms: enormous, gigantic, ginormous, huge, immense, massive; see also Thesaurus:large

   • 1964 May 29, The Colonnade‎^[1]:

     Other students make wide detours to avoid the humiliation and fear of being chased and attacked by the humongous numbers of bees in front of Atkinson.

   • 2015, Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen, ONE, page 19:

     Solomon had pulled this humongous fish that was bigger than anything weʼd ever seen.

   • 2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], “Bursting a Brain”, in Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 238:

     “Thumbs!” ordered Mr Big. “Do your worst with the boy!” Frank looked on in terror as the man bent back his humongous Thumbs, ready to cause damage. CLICK! CLICK! The henchman pressed them hard into the boy’s ears. Frank felt like his brain was going to burst. “ARGH!” he screamed.

Derived terms

• humongosity
• humongously
• humongousness

Translations

extremely large

• Dutch: enorm (nl), gigantisch (nl)
• Esperanto: grandega, giganta, kolosa
• Finnish: valtava (fi), suunnaton (fi), jättimäinen (fi)
• French: énorme (fr), gigantesque (fr)
• Galician: alarbe (gl) m, xigantesco (gl) m
• German: gigantisch (de), riesig (de)
• Greek: γιγαντιαίος (el) (gigantiaíos), εξαιρετικός (el) (exairetikós), θεόρατος (el) (theóratos)
• Hungarian: óriási (hu), hatalmas (hu), irdatlan (hu)
• Italian: disumano (it), enorme (it), gigantesco (it), mastodontico (it)
• Latvian: milzīgs, gigantisks
• Portuguese: gigantesco (pt)
• Russian: огро́мный (ru) (ogrómnyj), гига́нтский (ru) (gigántskij)
• Spanish: gigante (es), enorme (es)
• Swedish: gigantisk (sv), enorm (sv), mastodontisk, jättelik (sv), kolossal (sv)
• Tajik: каппа-калон (kappa-kalon)
• Turkish: devasa (tr), kocaman (tr)