leviathan

CEFRC2

/lɪˈvaɪəθn̩/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A very large and powerful person, organization, or thing.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A thing which is monstrously great in size, strength, etc. (especially a ship); also, a person with great power or wealth.

Examples

  • The company had become a leviathan in the industry.

  • The huge ship looked like a leviathan in the harbor.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Sometimes in the form Leviathan: based on the writings of Thomas Hobbes, the political state, especially a domineering and totalitarian one.

  2. A vast sea monster of tremendous strength, either imaginary or real, described as the most dangerous and powerful creature in the ocean.

  3. Synonym of Satan (“the supreme evil spirit in the Abrahamic religions, who tempts humanity into sin; the Devil”).

More examples

In context

  • The leviathan of the sea was a massive whale.

  • Holonym: the System

  • So is this greate and wyde ſee [sea] alſo, wherin are thinges crepinge innumerable, both ſmall and greate beaſtes. There go the ſhippes ouer, and there is that Leuiathan, whom thou haſt made, to take his paſtyme therin.

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

noun

The noun is derived from Middle English leviathan, levyathan, levyethan, from Late Latin leviathan, a transliteration of Biblical Hebrew לִוְיָתָן (liwyāṯān), possibly from לִוְיָה (liwyâ, “garland, wreath”) + ־תָּן (-tān, suffix forming agent nouns), literally “the tortuous one”. Noun sense 2.2 (“political state”) was coined by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) in his work Leviathan (1651): see the quotation. Noun sense 2.3 (“synonym of Satan”) refers to Isaiah 27:1 in the Bible (King James Version, spelling modernized): “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent, and he shall s...