Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Extremely large; enormous.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective humorous Very
large .
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's cute, small (20lbs), and currently moulting (ie, his undercoat is shedding in ginormous clumps), in case you're new to the blog and haven't seen pictures.
Archive 2007-07-01 2007
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He's cute, small (20lbs), and currently moulting (ie, his undercoat is shedding in ginormous clumps), in case you're new to the blog and haven't seen pictures.
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And, to save you time, I am aware that ginormous is a made up word.
The blame game… the race card… the care card « BuzzMachine 2005
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The person who recommended Laredo to me described the portions as "ginormous" - surely an exaggeration, I thought.
unknown title 2009
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Well Watchmen finally hits theaters today (my wife and I will be checking it out tonight in ginormous IMAX), so what better wayto celebrate — or drown your sorrows in case you didn’t like the movie — with Watchmen inspired drinks fromtheIsotopecomic lounge in San Francisco.
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Oh, and, in case you are wondering, much to my glee and John’s disgust, ginormous is indeed officially a word.
Strawberries Are Here!!! Laura 2008
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Oh, and, in case you are wondering, much to my glee and John’s disgust, ginormous is indeed officially a word.
Archive 2008-06-01 Laura 2008
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With fiscal chaos sweeping the globe like some kind of ginormous dustpan and brush set, nothing and nobody was untouched.
Sky puts a new spin on going to the dogs Simon Burnton 2010
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It doesn't have to be a 'ginormous' gesture -- it could be as easy as holding the door open for someone, paying toll for the car behind you or just a simple smile to a stranger.
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Space is ginormous In case you're wondering, 'ginormous' is indeed a scientific measure of space.
Ben Fractenberg: We're Going To The Moon...Again Ben Fractenberg 2010
john commented on the word ginormous
"Juan de Bedout, manager of the electric power and propulsion systems lab at G.E., said this was more important now because wind machines had grown from a few hundred kilowatts to 1.5 gigawatts, and his company was exploring machines four times bigger than that. “That’s ginormous,�? he said."
- New York Times, 12/28/06, "It’s Free, Plentiful and Fickle"
December 28, 2006
seanahan commented on the word ginormous
A related term is gihugic.
December 29, 2006
john commented on the word ginormous
"Just two years after a majority of visitors to Merriam-Webster OnLine declared it to be their "Favorite Word (Not in the Dictionary)," the adjective "ginormous" (now officially defined as "extremely large: humongous"), has won a legitimate place in the 2007 copyright update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition." (http://www.m-w.com/info/newwords07.htm)
Two years? Lame. Especially given that M-W itself dates the word to 1948.
July 11, 2007
reesetee commented on the word ginormous
And yet I just can't warm up to this word.... :-)
July 11, 2007
slumry commented on the word ginormous
It amuses me when I hear people say it (usually it is the context that is funny). I have not become comfortable enough with it to speak it...perhaps in time, who knows. Call me stick-in-the-mud
July 11, 2007
jason commented on the word ginormous
absurdly, comically large
April 3, 2009
autrefois commented on the word ginormous
Something that's ginormous is huge (gigantic, enormous). That's a ginormous bump he's got on his arm — that must really hurt!
June 20, 2009
Hobbit commented on the word ginormous
gigantic and enormous
July 5, 2009
solson commented on the word ginormous
Huge, very large; a contraction of "gigantic" and "enormous"
July 14, 2009
eosborne commented on the word ginormous
The word means "impressively or remarkably big," and is used a lot by my kids (ages 11 and 7)and, I suspect, young people generally.
September 19, 2009
pekihaydiopuyorumbyebye commented on the word ginormous
I really prefer "bignormous" over "ginormous." The beauty of bignormous is that of a yellow schoolbus converted into a methlab and then thrown up on a flatbed truck and filled with schoolkids again. The perfect mix of perversion, human will, and organicity. That, by the way, was a bignormous sentence, not a ginormous one.
September 22, 2009
karenrich commented on the word ginormous
I invented the word "ginormous" in 1998 while working at Netscape. It was my combination of "giant" and "enormous". I had tested "egantic" (enormous + gigantic) -- but that had no where near the ring to it of "ginormous".
karen richardson
January 24, 2010
bilby commented on the word ginormous
I first remember hearing the word in 1984.
January 24, 2010
pterodactyl commented on the word ginormous
I was curious about M-W's claim to have dated this word to 1948, so I got a second opinion from the OED. The OED says the same thing, it turns out, and goes into further detail:
Oooh, a heavy party in the mess -- sounds like a good time!January 24, 2010
dontcry commented on the word ginormous
I don't remember anything about 1984...it's a complete blank.
January 24, 2010
Prolagus commented on the word ginormous
I invented this word RIGHT NOW!
January 24, 2010
bilby commented on the word ginormous
Thanks ptero.
January 24, 2010
denmama commented on the word ginormous
Best usage: See "Elf"
April 2, 2010