stupendous
adjUS /stuˈpɛndəs/ · UK /stjuˈpɛndəs/
Etymology First attested from 1547, from Late Latin stupendus (“stunning, amazing”), from the verb stupeō (“(I) am stunned”). Doublet of stupend (which is obsolete), and related to stupor and stupid.
1
Astonishingly great or large; huge; enormous.
- One cannot appreciate how stupendous the Matterhorn is without seeing it.
- The entrance to Fonthill—that truly cloud-capt palace, so fantastic and so transitory—was by two stupendous doors, which seemed to defy the strength of giants.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 80:
1 more example
- Over the broadest there seemed to spring a cragged and stupendous arch, from which, as from the jaws of hell, gushed the sources of the sudden Phlegethon.1834, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, The Last Days of Pompeii:
2
Of stunning excellence or degree; marvelous.
- The renovator created a stupendous new look for our house.
- Synonyms
- colossal, enormous, huge, marvelous, prodigious, terrific, tremendous
- Antonyms
- stupid
- Derived terms
- stupendously, stupendousness, unstupendous