Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Something enormous in size or power.
- n. A huge animal, possibly the hippopotamus, described in the Bible.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An animal mentioned in Job xl. 15–24; probably, from the details given, a hippopotamus, but sometimes taken for some other animal, or for a type of the largest land-animals generally.
Wiktionary
- n. A great and mighty beast described in Job 40:15-24 used to illustrate God's mightiness.
- n. A great and mighty monster.
- n. Something which has the qualities of great power and might, and monstrous proportions.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An animal, probably the hippopotamus, described in Job xl. 15-24.
- n. something of large size or great power.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful
- n. a person of exceptional importance and reputation
Etymologies
- Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Hebrew bəhēmôt, pl. of bəhēmâ, beast; see bhm in Semitic roots.
Examples
“Regarding the hippo, I will say this: the behemoth is a mythical beast, whether it is related to the hippo or not.”
“That behemoth is responsible to one person, and that one person, as we have seen, is only loosely accountable to the electorate.”
“This year, B.J. Raji, a 6-2, 337-pound Boston College behemoth, is the best of a less-than-average group of defensive tackles and the only one from his position expected to be selected in the top 20.”
Versatility at end position: Rating the D-linemen in NFL draft class
“When a little DVD-by-mail upstart now known as Netflix came on the scene, the video store chain behemoth likely didn't take it seriously until it was too late.”
“Asked him what he thought about Palxico the pistol packin behemoth, His (old school died in the wood republican) take/opinion was this.”
“Half of a 1300 calorie behemoth is a reasonable meal for me.”
“In 1978, Dennison, the predecessor to today's binder-and-label behemoth Avery Dennison, had gobbled up Carter's Ink and was ready to introduce the next great innovation in text-marking technology: fluorescent colors.”
“The library may look a bit like a suburban Tesco, but with five subterranean floors extending twenty five metres down into the London clay, Wilson’s behemoth is an iceberg.”
“Project “10 to the 100th”, in honour of Google’s 10th anniversary of helping you surf the web (and email and calendar and who knows what else these days), the internet behemoth is asking people to submit their ideas that will have broad impacts on people’s lives.”
“Anything that produces a competitor to EA or whoever’s the current industry behemoth is good news.”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Activision and Blizzard: The Ultimate Merger
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘behemoth’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Mythical Beings
mermaid, manticore, fairy, brownie, dwarf, elf, leprechaun, selkie, gremlin, puck, pixie, genie and 97 more...
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The Request Line
This is the place to add words you'd like Charles Harrington Elster to pronounce for you!
swingeing, affiant, dahlia, hydrangea, re, clematis, Nabokov, casu marzu, schadenfreudgeon, nefarious, mewl, manteion and 170 more...
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BIG Words
Awesome words that just mean "BIG"
gargantuan, massive, behemoth, colossal, mammoth, monumental, leviathan, immense, enormous, elephantine, astronomical, whopping and 18 more...
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Mythological Beastiary
abada, therianthropy, ba, bahamut, balaur, banshee, behemoth, bendigeidfran, bluecap, centaur, bugbear, Ceryneian Hind and 14 more...
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xulilux's list
leviathan, destitute, iapetus, caesura, ineffable, eschew, phosphene, fungible, antediluvian, nomenclature, mottle, europa and 84 more...
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Words that should be heard in songs more often
Inspired by PossibleUnderscore's list of words overused in modern pop music.
giant squid, bamboo, colonic, herbivore, raptor, dodecahedron, largesse, sinuses, dim sum, carburetor, transubstantiation, wife and 54 more...
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The ugly ones
hernesheir By this edict the female gender is hereafter known as a beshemoth. Sep 4, 2009
seanmeade not enough Hebrew/Semitic-originating words in English Mar 26, 2007