Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly challenge created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.
To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link as a comment on Heena’s WOW post for this week (above link). It’s a nice post to do and will give you some practise with a dictionary, of which there are several online. Illustrations are by no means necessary, but it’s up to you.
I’m up to the letter L this week. I started off by just choosing a word at random (perspicacious). Since then, I’ve been working through the alphabet, so I’ll be looking for a good word beginning with M next week.
So, here is my WOW for this week:
Word: Leviathan
Pronunciation: le·vi·a·than [li-vahy–uh-thuhn; luh- veye -uh-thuhn]
Part of Speech: noun
Adjective: leviathan – meaning very large; gargantuan
Meaning:
1. (often initial capital letter: Leviathan) Bible. a sea monster.
2. any huge marine animal, as the whale.
3. anything of immense size and power, as a huge, oceangoing ship.
4. initial capital letter, italics: Leviathan) a philosophical work (1651) by ThomasHobbes dealing with the political organisation of society.
Synonyms:
behemoth, blockbuster, colossus, colossal, dinosaur, dreadnaught, jumbo, elephant, elephantine, Goliath, jumbo, giant, mammoth, mastodon, monster, monstrous, titan, whale, whopper, whopping, gargantuan, astronomical, immense, supersize
diminutive, dwarf, half-pint, midget, mite, peewee, pygmy/pigmy, runt, shrimp, infinitesimal, Lilliputian, micro, miniscule, tiny, teeny, microscopic
Word Origin:
1350-1400; Middle English levyathan < Late Latin leviathan < Hebrew: liwyāthān
Use in a Sentence:
1. It can be a great challenge to drive a wheeled leviathan in rush-hour traffic.
2. The tree was a leviathan among redwoods.
3. The man in front of us was a leviathan! He took up several seats at the theatre.
4. (Adjective use) The Titanic was a leviathan ship by the standards of the time.
If you’d like to see more interesting words, visit Heena’s page:
Millie Thom 
Very interesting!
And interesting choice, but I have to confess, I’ve never liked the word leviathan. To me it sounds like a word from an ill-thought out made up language. But that’s probably just my odd little brain.
It’s not a word I’d think of to use in my writing either, Bekki. It’s closely linked with the OT ‘monster’, of course, but even as a word to describe something huge, it’s not the prettiest sounding choice. I just though it was ‘Interesting’ rather tnan nice. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Sorry, didn’t mean to make it sound as if I was complaining about your choice. I thought it was a great choice, and partly because it brought such a negative reaction in me, then my brain went ticking on wondering why I found it so irksome. As for using in writing – I’ve a lot of 18th century coastal folk living in my head right now, so maybe I could just squeeze it in 🙂
I didn’t take it as criticism, Bekki! Please don’t worry on that score. All opinions are welcomed by me. I really do agree with you about the word. I liked a lot of pretty sounding words beginning with L but felt they were already well known and no one would be interested. Leviathan isn’t one you hear every day – not surprisingly, I suppose! Thank you again. 🙂
THe 18th century coastal folk sound fascinating. I take it that’s the novel you’re writing at the moment? I hope it’s all going well. Another historical fiction writer… Excellent. 🙂
It is my novel. It’s rearranging itself at the moment, so seriously have got me thinking if there’s room for a sea monster. Off to walk Mr Hicks and have a think about that one. Thanks for the inspiration. Hope your novel’s going well.
Thanks. My novel’s actually moving now. Better a late start than never!
Great to hear you’ve got going. Have fun!
Interesting selection of the word! I would love to see whale as leviathan, but not sea monster 😛
Sea monsters are definitley not something I want to see, either! The thought of sharks is bad enough. Like you, I’d love to see a whale, though. Thank you, Khloe. 🙂
You’re welcome as always Millie 🙂 hahahaha exactly no one wants to see sea monsters or sharks 😛
Nice word Millie, though it sounds a bit odd. I guess I won’t be using it anytime soon. But it’s always good to know the meaning of such words 🙂
Thanks.