different between giant vs towering

English

Alternative forms

• giaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English geaunt, geant, from Old French geant, gaiant (Modern French géant) from Vulgar Latin *gag?s, gagant-, from Latin gig?s, gigant-, from Ancient Greek ????? (gígas, “giant”) Cognate to giga- (“1,000,000,000”).

Displaced native Middle English eten, ettin (from Old English ?oten), and Middle English eont (from Old English ent).

Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree-man”) and Old English þyrs (“giant, monster, demon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?a?.?nt/
  • (dialectal, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?d?a?nt/
• Rhymes: -a??nt
• Hyphenation: gi?ant

Noun

giant (plural giants)

1. A mythical human of very great size.
2. (mythology) Specifically:
   1. Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
   2. A jotun.
3. A very tall and large person.
4. A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
5. (astronomy) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (e.g. red giant, blue giant).
6. (computing) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
7. A very large organisation.
8. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
   • 1988, Thomas Dolby, "Airhead":

     she's not the intellectual giant

Synonyms

See also: Thesaurus:giant

Translations

Adjective

giant (not comparable)

1. Very large.

Synonyms

• colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Antonyms

• dwarf
• midget

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• TA'ing, TAing, Taing, anti-g, tagin, tangi, tiang, tinga

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ta?????/

Verb

towering

1. present participle of tower

Adjective

towering (comparative more towering, superlative most towering)

1. Very tall or high, so as to dwarf anything around it.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   • 1964, Look (volume 28, page 338)

     She is a towering girl with a husky baritone voice and a friendly and flamboyant style.

Translations

Noun

towering (plural towerings)

1. The act or condition of being high above others.
   • 1787, Robert Burns, letter to a friend

     But I am an old hawk at the sport; and wrote her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as brought my bird from the aerial towerings, pop down at my foot like Corporal Trim's hat.

See also

• tower over
• towering inferno