This summer I planted mammoth sunflowers in front of our house. They were immense. A few of them reached 3 meters in height, almost touching the eaves of our home. The flowers were not as impressive as the height but they grew well and looked good until some squirrels started eating the seeds and broke many of the plant stems. I was immensely irritated.
Immense means marked by greatness especially in size, amount or degree. The city faces an immense challenge replacing cast iron infrastructure issues. She inherited an immense fortune from her grandparents.
For many English speakers immense implies something that is really, really big. The original meaning of immense described something that transcended the ordinary means of measurement. Immense comes from the Latin verb metiri, meaning to measure. Adding the Latin prefix ‘in’ (not or opposite of) suggests something not measurable or too great to be measured. Things that lack limits or boundary lines, such as the universe, are immense.
The Christian document, the Athanasian Creed (6th century), used the Latin term immensus to describe the three persons of God. Immensus has often been translated in English versions of the Creed as incomprehensible or infinite (without spatial limits), and occasionally immense. Immensus was used to distinguish God from created things, which have boundaries and defined proportions. God cannot be contained or measured by spatial dimensions, therefore God is immense.
Today we use immense to designate something exceedingly large, either literally or figuratively. The Pacific Ocean is an immense body of water. After taking his medication for migraines, he experienced immense relief.
Enormous, huge, vast, gigantic, colossal, mammoth, and immense all imply extremely large.
Enormous suggests surpassing in size or amount or degree with some abnormality or monstrousness. In Canada an enormous amount of food is wasted every day, yet many families have to use food banks.
Huge denotes something of prodigious bulk or amount. An advantage of the Canadian medical system is that families usually do not have to incur a huge debt when a major illness occurs.
Vast implies expansiveness of extent. Southern Saskatchewan has vast fields of cereal crops which seem endless on the flat prairie.
Gigantic stresses the contrast with the size of others of the same kind. The tall sunflowers in front of our house were gigantic compared to the ones growing in the back garden area.
Colossal applies especially to a human construction of incredible proportions. Toronto has the colossal CN Tower located next to the Rogers Centre, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Mammoth suggests hugeness and ponderousness of bulk. They tried to move the mammoth boulder to another position in the front yard but it couldn’t be budged.
In the 1700s, immense became an informal slang for supremely good, excellent, or impressive. After attending the concert, she informed every friend she knew that it was an immense production. When he recorded his 4th shutout in a row, his teammates called him an immense goalkeeper.
I have never attended a sumo match while visiting in Japan, but the pictures and ads I have seen show wrestlers who are immense, especially compared to most Japanese men. I am sure that if I ever met a sumo wrestler in person, I would be immensely impressed.
Columnist John Kreutzwieser loves to research words and has an interest in the usage, origin, and relevance of words for society today. Greek and Latin form the basis of many words, with ancient Hebrew shedding light on word usage.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com. Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
