godzilla

God-zil-la · noun

imported

Definitions

noun

  1. 1.

    A giant monster (kaiju) from Japanese cinema, first appearing in the 1954 film. Godzilla is typically depicted as a prehistoric sea creature awakened and mutated by nuclear radiation.

  2. 2.

    (informal) Something of enormous size or power; used metaphorically for anything exceptionally large or dominant.

Related words

See also: King Kong, kaiju, monster

Etymology

From Japanese Gojira, a portmanteau of gorira ("gorilla") and kujira ("whale").