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''colossus'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260609164652-00-⌔

colossus - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

colossus (plural colossi or 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.
  • (by extension) 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 burnt out.[”]1
    • ✤ What I love about the colossi is that they actually feel colossal: they move ponderously around, sending out tremours with each step; their ancient husks richly detailed with dirt and plant life.2
  • (figurative) 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 The colossus of science was not the first king of reason, [John Maynard] Keynes wrote after reading Newton’s unpublished manuscripts.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”.3

Etymology

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).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kəˈlɒs.əs/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American, dialects of Canada) IPA: /kəˈlɑ.səs/
  • (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA: /kəˈlɒs.əs/
  • (New Zealand) IPA: /kəˈlɔs.əs/
  • (New Zealand) IPA: /kəˈlɒs.əs/, [kəˈlɔ̟s.əs]
  • Rhymes: -ɒsəs

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 18, pages 186–187: ↩

  2. 2010 August 11 (5:00pm), Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, “Shadow of the Colossus” reviewed by Zero Punctuation, 3:27–3:42 and 3:56–4:08 ↩

  3. 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist ‎, volume 411, number 8892: ↩

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