colossus

[ kuh-los-uh s ]

/ kəˈlɒs əs /

(initial capital letter) the legendary bronze statue of Helios at Rhodes. Compare Seven Wonders of the World.

any statue of gigantic size.

anything colossal, gigantic, or very powerful.

Origin of colossus

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek kolossós statue, image, presumably < a pre-Hellenic Mediterranean language

I'll take you to the tombs of the Kings, and to the Colossi when the sun is setting.

Bella Donna |Robert Hichens
No time to study the features of the Colossi, or to search for the grave of Major Tidwell.

It Happened in Egypt |C. N. Williamson
Far off rise up from the plain two mighty seated statues, the Colossi, set up by Amenhetep iii.

Round the Wonderful World |G. E. Mitton
There is no place that I know on the earth which has the peculiar, bright, ineffable calm of the plain of these Colossi.

The Spell of Egypt |Robert Hichens

It would seem that all the colossi were of stone, especially of280 the harder kinds.

A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. II (of 2) |Georges Perrot

colossus

/ (kəˈlɒsəs) /

something very large, esp a statue

C14: from Latin, from Greek kolossos