prodigious means extraordinarily amazing. It carries an Arena rating of 1774, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, prodigious ranks #1,021 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #2,584 of 17,120 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,658 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,268 of 17,111 for Most Sublime Words.
prodigious is pronounced /pɹəˈdɪd͡ʒəs/.
Why “prodigious” is a great word
Extraordinarily impressive in size, quantity, or degree, or remarkably talented, especially from a young age. From the Latin prōdigiōsus ("marvelous, portentous"), from prōdigium ("omen, portent, monster"), carrying the ancient weight of things that defy natural law. Unlike "prodigal," which emphasizes a wasteful extravagance, or "immense," which merely states great scale, "prodigious" carries a shock of the marvelous and a tremor of the uncanny. It is the shadow of a storm cloud that blots out a county, the child composing symphonies while others master shoelaces, or the memory that retains every face it has ever seen—a testament to forces that dwarf ordinary measure, leaving one to wonder if such abundance is a blessing or a portent of a world out of joint.
adj
- Extraordinarily amazing.
- Extraordinarily amazing.; In a positive sense: marvellous, wonderful; (specifically) extremely talented, especially at a young age.
- Extraordinarily amazing.; In a negative sense: appalling, horrifying, shocking; (specifically, archaic) abnormal, freakish, monstrous, unnatural.
- Very big in extent, quantity, or size; abundant; intense; colossal, huge.
- Having the nature of an omen or portent; ominous, portentous.
adv
- Synonym of prodigiously (“in a prodigious manner”).e.g.“I have fewer books than leisure to read them, and I have a prodigious big appetite.”
Words closest in meaning
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