colossal
part of speech
adjective (colossal)
meaning for a pupil
1) Colossal means extremely large, huge, enormous. tree →
2) (informal) Colossal also means very great in amount or degree («a colossal mistake», «a colossal waste»). tree →
sense in the lessons
Interpretation: In Sefer Yetzirah, God is said to have cut huge pillars out of thin air. The tradition reads this as showing that God made the world out of nothing, with no material. In the primary lessons: In stories, colossal giants, waves and buildings show huge size. In history lessons the Colossus of Rhodes was a giant statue, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world; «colossal» comes from it. In everyday talk «colossal» exaggerates for effect.
examples
- He hewed, as it were, immense column or colossal pillars, out of the intangible air, and from the empty space. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1887) tree →
- He created a reality out of nothing, called the nonentity into existence and hewed, as it were, colossal pillars from intangible air. (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →
- A colossal wave crashed over the harbour. tree →
- The blue whale is a colossal animal. tree →
- The pyramids are colossal stone buildings. tree →
- We ate a colossal pizza. tree →
- Losing the key was a colossal mistake. tree →
- The storm did colossal damage. tree →
- The giant took colossal steps across the hills. tree →
- This colossal statue was 39 feet high, and was composed of ivory and gold; its majestic beauty formed the chief attraction of the temple. tree →
note
Spelling: col-OSS-al, double s, one l at the end. Strong word: it is bigger than «big» and «large». Similar: enormous, gigantic, huge, massive.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «colossal» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.