Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something unusually large of its kind, especially a ship.
  • noun A very large animal, especially a whale.
  • noun A monstrous sea creature mentioned in the Bible.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An aquatic animal mentioned in the Old Testament.
  • noun Hence, in modern use Any great or monstrous marine animal, as the whale.
  • noun Anything of vast or huge size.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An aquatic animal, described in the book of Job, ch. xli., and mentioned in other passages of Scripture.
  • noun The whale, or a great whale.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Very large; gargantuan.
  • noun biblical A large sea monster which guards the gates of hell at the bottom of the sea.
  • noun Something large; behemoth.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the largest or most massive thing of its kind
  • noun monstrous sea creature symbolizing evil in the Old Testament

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, huge biblical sea creature, from Late Latin, from Hebrew liwyātān; see lwy in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hebrew (Biblical and Modern) לִוְיָתָן ("whale").

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Examples

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  • ... or that Sea-beast

    Leviathan, which God of all his works

    Created hugest that swim th' Ocean stream ...

    Milton, Paradise Lost I

    December 17, 2006

  • from a semitic root meaning "turning, winding and twisting"

    January 14, 2008

  • (Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן, Standard Liwyatan Tiberian Liwy�?ṯ�?n ; "Twisted; coiled") A Biblical sea monster referred to in the Old Testament (Psalm 74:13-14; Job 41; Isaiah 27:1). The word leviathan has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature. (Wikipedia)

    May 22, 2008

  • See also leviathan of forensics.

    September 30, 2008

  • Can also be used to decribe complete political control and vast bureaucracy.

    "The heirarchy of levithans seek to gain control of all ports."

    July 2, 2009