# colossus

Pronunciation: say "kuh-LOS-uhs" US /kəˈlɑ.səs/, UK /kəˈlɒs.əs/

## Noun

1. Any creature or object that is gigantic in size.
   - Simple: Any living thing or object that is extremely big.
   - _The factory floor was crowded with steel colossi that pressed car bodies from sheet metal._
   - _In the final level, the hero must climb a lumbering colossus and find its weak point._
2. A statue of gigantic size; the name was given especially to famous statues of the ancient world, such as the Colossus of Rhodes and the Colossus of Nero in Rome.
   - Simple: A huge statue, like the famous giant statues of ancient Rhodes and Rome.
   - _The emperor ordered a bronze colossus of himself to tower over the entrance to his palace._
   - _Two seated colossi of the pharaoh still guard the ruined temple._
3. Someone or something held in the very highest admiration and respect.
   - Simple: A person or thing that people admire and respect very much.
   - _Beethoven remains a colossus of Western music, studied by generations of young composers._
   - _Critics count both novelists among the colossi of twentieth-century fiction._

## Origin

From Latin colossus, from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, "large statue", especially the Colossus of Rhodes), which comes from an unknown Pre-Greek source and was once wrongly associated with κολοφών.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/colossus (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).