ALL meanings of colossus
co·los·sus
C c - countable noun colossus If you describe someone or something as a colossus, you think that they are extremely important and great in ability or size. 3
- countable noun colossus A colossus is an extremely large statue. 3
- noun colossus something very large, esp a statue 3
- noun colossus a gigantic statue 3
- noun colossus the gigantic statue of Apollo set at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes c. 280 b.c. and included among the Seven Wonders of the World 3
- noun colossus any huge or important person or thing 3
- noun colossus A statue that is much bigger than life size. 1
- noun plural colossus (initial capital letter) the legendary bronze statue of Helios at Rhodes. Compare Seven Wonders of the World. 1
- noun plural colossus any statue of gigantic size. 1
- noun plural colossus anything colossal, gigantic, or very powerful. 1
- noun Technical meaning of colossus (A huge and ancient statue on the Greek island of Rhodes). 1. (computer) The Colossus and Colossus Mark II computers used by Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, UK during the Second World War to crack the "Tunny" cipher produced by the Lorenz SZ 40 and SZ 42 machines. Colossus was a semi-fixed-program vacuum tube calculator (unlike its near-contemporary, the freely programmable Z3). 2. The computer in the 1970 film, "Colossus: The Forbin Project". Forbin is the designer of a computer that will run all of America's nuclear defences. Shortly after being turned on, it detects the existence of Goliath, the Soviet counterpart, previously unknown to US Planners. Both computers insist that they be linked, whereupon the two become a new super computer and threaten the world with the immediate launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached. Colossus begins to give its plans for the management of the world under its guidance. Forbin and the other scientists form a technological resistance to Colossus which must operate underground. 1
- noun colossus giant statue 1
- noun colossus important or influential person 1
- noun colossus Any creature or thing of gigantic size. 0
- noun colossus (figuratively) Somebody or something very greatly admired and respected. 0
- noun colossus A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome and the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 0