cyclopean

adjective

cy·​clo·​pe·​an ˌsī-klə-ˈpē-ən  sī-ˈklō-pē- 

1

often capitalized : of, relating to, or characteristic of a Cyclops

2

: huge, massive

3

: of or relating to a style of stone construction marked typically by the use of large irregular blocks without mortar

Did you know?

The Cyclopes of Greek mythology were huge, crude giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. Odysseus and his men had a terrible encounter with a Cyclops, and escaped utter disaster only by stabbing a burning stick into the monster's eye. The great stone walls at such ancient sites as Troy and Mycenae are called cyclopean because the stones are so massive and the construction (which uses no cement) is so expert that it was assumed that only a superhuman race such as the Cyclopes could have achieved such a feat.

Synonyms

• astronomical
• astronomic
• Brobdingnagian
• bumper
• colossal
• cosmic
• cosmical
• elephantine
• enormous
• galactic
• gargantuan
• giant
• gigantesque
• gigantic
• grand
• herculean
• heroic
• heroical
• Himalayan
• huge
• humongous
• humungous
• immense
• jumbo
• king-size
• king-sized
• leviathan
• mammoth
• massive
• mega
• mighty
• monster
• monstrous
• monumental
• mountainous
• oceanic
• pharaonic
• planetary
• prodigious
• super
• super-duper
• supersize
• supersized
• titanic
• tremendous
• vast
• vasty
• walloping
• whacking
• whopping

Examples of cyclopean in a Sentence

a cyclopean granite statue that the dictator himself had commissioned

Recent Examples on the Web

The five-story Osaka Castle, a recreation of the original keep (which was destroyed on several occasions), is built on solid cyclopean foundations, with mint green roof tiles and golden accoutrements that bear striking similarities with Nagoya Castle. —CNN, 19 Jan. 2022

The wall was built with a range of construction techniques, including cyclopean masonry. —Isis Davis-Marks, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Aug. 2021

If a mutation causes sonic hedgehog activity to become too muted, the result can be a birth defect called holoprosencephaly, marked in the most extreme cases by a head with a single, cyclopean eye. —George Johnson, Discover Magazine, 16 Sep. 2013

Rachmaninoff’s humbling presence, re-encountered, is gigantic, cyclopean. —Joseph Horowitz, WSJ, 17 Sep. 2018

Vividly monumental aggregates of cyclopean arches, inverted pyramids, louvered domes, layered patterns and saturated colors—this is not the rigidly principled modernism of Le Corbusier or the inviolate geometry of Louis Kahn. —Julie V. Iovine, WSJ, 22 Feb. 2017

Of course, the short, goggled and sometimes cyclopean minions are on hand, engaging in a prison food fight and dancing in a cancan-like production number. Innocuous pandemonium ensues in candy colors. —Andy Webster, New York Times, 29 June 2017

Iran, Syria, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq—in a Cyclopean cellar wrapped in near-total darkness. —Ali Arkady, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1582, in the meaning defined at sense 1