huge

Alternative forms

• hudge (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English huge, from Old French ahuge (“high, lofty, great, large, huge”), from a hoge (“at height”), from a (“at, to”) + hoge (“a hill, height”), from Frankish *haug, *houg (“height, hill”) or Old Norse haugr (“hill”); both from Proto-Germanic *haugaz (“hill, mound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kowkós (“hill, mound”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *kewk-. Akin to Old High German houg (“mound”) (compare related German Hügel (“hill”)), Old Norse haugr (“mound”), Lithuanian kaũkaras (“hill”), Old High German hōh (“high”) (whence German hoch), Old English hēah (“high”). More at high.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /hjuːd͡ʒ/, [çu̟ːd͡ʒ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (New York City, some other US dialects) IPA^(key): /juːdʒ/
• (Norfolk) IPA^(key): [hʊudʒ]
• Rhymes: -uːdʒ

Adjective

huge (comparative huger or more huge, superlative hugest or most huge)

1. Very large.

   Synonyms: great; see also Thesaurus:large

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, […] the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts, […] the neurotic victims of mental cirrhosis, the jewelled animals whose moral code is the code of the barnyard—!”

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, […].

   • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

2. (informal) Very strong, powerful, or dedicated.

   Synonym: great

   Both of my parents are huge supporters of animal rights.

3. (informal) Very interesting, significant, or popular.

   Synonym: great

   The band's next album is going to be huge.

   In our league our coach is huge!

Further reading

• “huge”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “huge”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• e-hug, eugh, gehu

Alternative forms

• heug, heuge, hoege, hoge, hogge, hogh, hoige, houge, hugge

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French ahuge, a form of ahoge, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhiu̯d͡ʒ(ə)/, /ˈhud͡ʒ(ə)/

Adjective

huge

1. huge, large, enormous
2. great, severe, excessive, prominent
3. numerous, plentiful

Adverb

huge

1. hugely, greatly

Noun

huge f (plural huges)

1. market stall