Enormous

How to spell enormous

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce enormous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does enormous mean?

1. adjectiveVery great in size, quantity, or degree.

Enormous in a sentence

• The warehouse held an enormous stock of spare parts.

• Renovating the old house turned out to be an enormous expense.

Where does enormous come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin enormis, which was built from the prefix e- (a form of ex-, meaning 'out of') and norma, a 'carpenter's square' or 'rule' that gave us the modern idea of a 'norm'. Literally, then, enormis described something 'out of the rule', that is, irregular or abnormal in shape or measure. English took the word in the 1500s, partly through the French énorme, and at first it carried a sense of monstrous wrongdoing as well as sheer size; an 'enormous crime' meant an outrageous one. Over time the moral overtone faded and the word settled into its modern meaning of vast in size or degree. That hidden norma root explains the spelling: think of something that bursts out beyond the 'norm', and the n in the middle stays in place.

How the word is built

• e- (from ex-, out of)
• norm (from Latin norma: rule, pattern)
• -ous (adjective suffix: full of)