cyclopean

See also: Cyclopean

English

Alternative forms

• Cyclopean
• cyclopian

Etymology

From cyclops +‎ -ean.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪkləʊpi.ən/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌsaɪkləˈpiː.ən/

Adjective

cyclopean (comparative more cyclopean, superlative most cyclopean)

1. (mythology) Suggestive of a cyclops.
2. (masonry) Fitted together of huge irregular stones.
3. (by extension) Massive in stature.
   • 2006, Fernando Pessoa, "Salutation to Walt Whitman," in A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems, edited and translated by Richard Zenith, Penguin, pp. 198-9,

     You were cyclopean and muscular, not pretty, / Yet your attitude toward the world was feminine, / And for you each leaf of grass, each stone and each man was the Universe.

     See also quotation under cyclopian.

4. (of an image) Created by combining two images.
   • 2001, Sharan Strange, “Looking”, in Ash, Boston: Beacon Press, page 50:

     When he wrote the word, / the o's were joined / like eyeglass lenses without / a bridge. Cross-eyed, hypnotic, / they threatened to merge, / become Cyclopean. […]

Derived terms

• Cyclopean architecture
• cyclopean stairs
• hypercyclopean

 

Translations

massive in stature

• Catalan: ciclopi
• Polish: olbrzymi (pl) m
• Turkish: endamlı (tr)

Anagrams

• clean copy