Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Impressively great in size, force, or extent; enormous.
- adjective Extraordinary; marvelous.
- adjective Obsolete Portentous; ominous.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having the character or partaking of the nature of a prodigy; portentous.
- Wonderfully large; very great in size, quantity, or extent; monstrous; immense; huge; enormous.
- Very great in degree; excessive; extreme.
- Synonyms Monstrous, marvelous, amazing, astonishing, astounding, extraordinary.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Obs. or R. Of the nature of a prodigy; marvelous; wonderful; portentous.
- adjective Extraordinary in bulk, extent, quantity, or degree; very great; vast; huge; immense
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Very big in size or
quantity ;gigantic ;colossal ;huge .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective far beyond what is usual in magnitude or degree
- adjective so great in size or force or extent as to elicit awe
- adjective of momentous or ominous significance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He grew foolishly proud and fond of what he called my prodigious advance.
Lazarre Mary Hartwell Catherwood 1874
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The effect may be comic, but the fact that Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer would know words like "prodigious" is pretty amazing if you think about it nowadays.
New Paradigms in Law 2006
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I think prodigious is the word that best describes Winston Churchill the man-artist, orator, soldier, journalist, proud father and devoted husband, a connoisseur of food and wine and beauty, a passionate lover of life, of its great moments and its small pleasures.
Winston Churchill 1941
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And so it came to pass that daily thereafter did we practise for an hour or so in the armoury with sword and buckler, and with every lesson my proficiency with the iron grew in a manner that Falcone termed prodigious, swearing that I was born to the sword, that the knack of it was in the very blood of me.
The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and mighty Agostino D'Anguissola, tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina in the state of Piacenza Rafael Sabatini 1912
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In a memo of an April 9, 2009 interview the ethics office conducted with Jackson, Nayak was described as a "prodigious and obsessive supporter" of Blagojevich.
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In a memo of an April 9, 2009 interview the ethics office conducted with Jackson, Nayak was described as a "prodigious and obsessive supporter" of Blagojevich.
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You are to observe the winter method of fishing here, is to break openings like small fish ponds on the ice, to which the fish coming for air, are taken in prodigious quantities on the surface.
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From afar the blaze of colour could be seen, and then the sisters would loosen the reins, letting their horses fly along till they reached the oasis of colour they had seen from afar shining between the trees; sometimes it seemed like a blue sheet of water; but when they reached the spot it was seen to be millions and millions of blue irises and hyacinths, growing in prodigious masses, and smelling, oh, so sweet!
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Notwithstanding that the majority of its inhabitants were generally of dusky hue and its political masters theoretically implacably hostile to South Africa, those same politicians had so swiftly beggared the nation after independence with its pursuit of unbridled socialism that it quickly succumbed to the lure of the Rands and Dollars which landing fees and the profits from refuelling SAA’s Boeing 747s generated in prodigious quantities.
Archive 2008-03-23 2008
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Notwithstanding that the majority of its inhabitants were generally of dusky hue and its political masters theoretically implacably hostile to South Africa, those same politicians had so swiftly beggared the nation after independence with its pursuit of unbridled socialism that it quickly succumbed to the lure of the Rands and Dollars which landing fees and the profits from refuelling SAA’s Boeing 747s generated in prodigious quantities.
A Young Scotsman Might Die for His Country, But Only If Sober 2008
exquisite commented on the word prodigious
Crowds have gathered at the windows of the hospital's nursery ward to marvel at Antonio, who is already 56cm (22in) long and drinks "prodigious amounts of milk."
February 1, 2007
seanahan commented on the word prodigious
It is weird, this word means something different than prodigy.
February 2, 2007
slumry commented on the word prodigious
Seanahan, you will be glad to hear:
prodigious
1552, "having the appearance of a prodigy," from L. prodigiosus "strange, wonderful, marvelous," from prodigium (see prodigy). Meaning "vast, enormous" is from 1601.
June 17, 2007
milosrdenstvi commented on the word prodigious
A spectacular word for indicating amazement. Why, it's prodigious!
March 21, 2009
Azr commented on the word prodigious
S: colossal, monstrous, extraordinary, astonishing, astounding
A: small, teeny, tiny, ordinary, unsignificant
October 25, 2013