colossus
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colossus
- /kəˈlɒs.əs/ UK
- /kəˈlɑ.səs/ US, dialectal
- /kəˈlɒs.əs/ Canada, dialectal
- /kəˈlɔs.əs/ New Zealand
- /kəˈlɒs.əs/ New Zealand
- [kəˈlɔ̟s.əs] New Zealand
Rhymes with -ɒsəs
Where it comes from
From Latin colossus, from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, “large statue, especially the colossus of Rhodes”), from an unknown Pre-Greek etymon (and erroneously associated with κολοφών).
noun colossi · colossuses
- A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome and the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
- Any creature or thing of gigantic size. ["]The Empire has always been a realm of colossal resources. […] Why, they don't even understand their own colossi any longer. The machines work from generation to generation automatically, and the caretakers are a hereditary caste who would be helpless if a single D-tube in all that vast structure
- Somebody or something very greatly admired and respected. The truth is that [Isaac] Newton was very much a product of his time. The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, [John Maynard] Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts. Instead “he was the last of the magicians”.
