immense

From Middle English immens, inmens, from Old French immense, from Latin immensus, from in- (“not”) + mensus (“measured”). Compare incommensurable.

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈmɛns/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɛns

immense (comparative immenser, superlative immensest)

1. Huge, gigantic, very large.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […] , down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

   • 2025 June 19, Hadas Gold, Jackie Wattles, “Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets keep blowing up at the worst possible time”, in CNN Business‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 July 2025:

     As Elon Musk returns his focus to his businesses, one of his most important companies just had another setback: A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in an immense fireball Wednesday during a routine ground test.

2. (colloquial) Supremely good.
3. (colloquial) Major; to a great degree.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     The gallant young Indian dandies at home on furlough—immense dandies these—chained and moustached—driving in tearing cabs […]

• See also Thesaurus:large

immense (plural immenses)

1. (poetic) Immense extent or expanse; immensity.
   • 1882, James Thomson (B. V.), Despotism Tempered by Dynamite:

     The half of Asia is my prison-house,
     Myriads of convicts lost in its Immense—
     I look with terror to my crowning day.

   • 1994, New Times International, numbers 1-8, page 9:

     The events that took place in the immenses of the former USSR three years ago remind one about ancient rule of everyday life which is equally applicable both to daily routine and to politics: […]

• Eminems

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immense

1. inflection of immens:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

Learned borrowing from Latin immēnsus.

• IPA^(key): /i(m).mɑ̃s/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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immense (plural immenses)

1. immense, huge

   Synonyms: énorme, incommensurable

• immensément
• immensifier

• immensité

• “immense”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

immense f pl

1. feminine plural of immenso

immēnse

1. vocative masculine singular of immēnsus