huge

[ hyoojor, often, yooj ]

adjective

, hug·er, hug·est.

1. extraordinarily large in bulk, quantity, or extent:

   a huge ship; a huge portion of ice cream.

   Synonyms: bulky, stupendous, vast, colossal, gigantic, mammoth

   Antonyms: diminutive, tiny, small

2. of unbounded extent, scope, or character; limitless:

   the huge genius of Mozart.

3. Slang. very important, successful, popular, etc.:

   The show is huge in Britain.

huge

/ hjuːdʒ /

adjective

1. extremely large in size, amount, or scope Archaic formhugeous

Pronunciation Note

See human.

Derived Forms

• ˈhugeness, noun

Other Words From

• hugely adverb
• hugeness noun
• over·huge adjective
• over·hugely adverb
• over·hugeness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of huge¹

First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English huge, hoge from Old French ahuge, ahoge “enormous,” equivalent to a- a- ⁵ + hoge “height” from Germanic; compare Old Norse haugr “hill” ( high )

Word History and Origins

Origin of huge¹

C13: from Old French ahuge, of uncertain origin

Synonym Study

Huge, enormous, immense, tremendous imply great magnitude. Huge implies massiveness, bulkiness, or even shapelessness: a huge mass of rock; a huge collection of antiques. Enormous, literally out of the norm, applies to what exceeds in extent, magnitude, or degree, a norm or standard: an enormous iceberg. Tremendous, in informal use, applies to anything so huge as to be astonishing or to inspire awe: a tremendous amount of equipment. Immense, literally not measurable, is particularly applicable to what is exceedingly great, without reference to a standard: immense buildings. All are used figuratively: a huge success; enormous curiosity; tremendous effort; immense joy.

Example Sentences

Rather than fretting about infinites, they should have focused on connecting tiny with huge.

From Quanta Magazine

To their astonishment, they found that the huge difference in the mantled clones was the result of a single, tiny epigenetic change.

From Nautilus

The “Top Stories” SERP feature, however, was a huge benefit to using an AMP for any news agency with a website, and it’s easy to understand why.

From Search Engine Watch

First, Apple was supplying a base of huge, though slowly growing profits, and Google and Facebook provided earnings that were both increasingly big, and racing ahead.

From Fortune

Being in the Midwest, “there are just a limited number of funds and angel investors, which have huge concentrations on the coast,” says Candice Matthews Brackeen, founder and CEO of Cincinnati-based Lightship Capital.

From Ozy

Music is a huge part of the tone of Black Dynamite overall—going back to the original 2009 movie on which the series is based.

From The Daily Beast

And, as Gow adds wryly from his own personal experience, “To a huge extent they achieved that aim very well.”

From The Daily Beast

Last March they gave Airbus a huge piece of new business, ordering 169 A320s and 65 of the slightly larger A321.

From The Daily Beast

In doing so he exposed the failure of other airlines in the region to see the huge pent-up demand for cheap travel.

From The Daily Beast

Beyond the huge American flag that hung over the street, the mile-long mass of cops ended.

From The Daily Beast

Only the petrol tins they took for water right and left of their pathway up the cliff; huge diamonds in the evening sun.

From Project Gutenberg

Two huge steam engines had snorted and puffed for three whole years.

From Project Gutenberg

Well, the pudding moment arrived, and a huge slice almost obscured from sight the plate before us.

From Project Gutenberg

Nothing doubtful or "reputed" ever arrived in the huge packing-cases consigned to Walls End Castle.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus among the huge mass of accumulated commodities the simplest wants would go unsatisfied.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• colossal
• enormous
• extensive
• gargantuan
• giant
• gigantic
• great
• humongous
• immense
• magnificent
• mammoth
• massive
• monstrous
• monumental
• towering
• tremendous
• vast