Colossus

How to spell colossus

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce colossus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does colossus mean?

1. nounA statue that is far larger than life-size.
2. nounA person, organisation, or thing of enormous size, power, or importance.

Colossus in a sentence

• The ancient harbour was once guarded by a bronze colossus of the sun god.

• The bank had grown into a financial colossus with branches on every continent.

• Tourists photographed the marble colossus towering over the temple courtyard.

• The tech firm became an industrial colossus that smaller rivals could not match.

Where does colossus come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Latin colossus, which was borrowed directly from the Greek kolossos, a term that originally described a very large statue, especially one of a god or hero. The Greeks themselves seem to have taken the word from an older, pre-Greek language, so its ultimate root is uncertain, but in classical use it always carried the sense of something towering and superhuman in scale. The most famous example was the Colossus of Rhodes, an enormous bronze figure of the sun god that stood near the harbour and was counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. English adopted the Latin spelling in the late 1300s, keeping the single 'l' and the double 's' that trip up modern writers. Over time the meaning widened beyond statues to describe any person or organisation of overwhelming size or power, which is why we speak of a financial or industrial colossus today.

How the word is built

• coloss- (from Greek kolossos: a giant statue)
• -us (Latin noun ending)