leviathan

See also: léviathan and Leviathan

English

WOTD – 1 August 2025
Behemoth and Leviathan (sense 1; bottom), by William Blake.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English leviathan, levyathan, levyethan,[1] 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”.

Sense 2.2 (“political state”) was coined by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) in his work Leviathan (1651): see the quotation. Sense 2.3 (“synonym of Satan”) refers to Isaiah 27:1 in the Bible[2] (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 slay the dragon that is in the sea.”[3]

The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /lɪˈvaɪəθn̩/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (General American) enPR: lə-vīʹə-thən, IPA(key): /ləˈvaɪəθ(ə)n/
  • Audio (General American):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪəθən
  • Hyphenation: lev‧i‧a‧than

Noun

leviathan (plural leviathans)

  2. (biblical, mythology) A vast sea monster of tremendous strength, either imaginary or real, described as the most dangerous and powerful creature in the ocean.
  3. (figurative)
    1. A thing which is monstrously great in size, strength, etc. (especially a ship); also, a person with great power or wealth.
      Synonyms: behemoth, colossus, mammoth, titan
      • 1606, Tho[mas] Dekker, “The Deuill Let Loose, with His Answere to Pierce Pennylesse”, in Newes from Hell; […], London: […] R. B[lower, S. Stafford, and Valentine Simmes] for W. Ferebrand, […], →OCLC, signature G3, recto:
        Of this laſt requeſt, the Lacquy of this great Leuiathan, promiſde he ſhould be maiſter, but he vvould not bring him to a miles end by land, (they vvere too many to meddle vvith).
      • 1656, Robert Sanderson, “[Ad Populum.] The First Sermon.”, in Twenty Sermons Formerly Preached. […], London: […] R. Norton, for Henry Seile […], →OCLC, paragraph 36, page 412:
        So can the Lord deal, and often doth, vvith the great Behemoths and Leviathans of the vvorld: […]
      • 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […], London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 37:
        The Duke of Bedford [Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford] is the Leviathan among all the creatures of the Crovvn. He tumbles about his unvvieldy bulk; he plays and frolicks in the ocean of the Royal bounty.
      • 1818, Lord Byron, “Canto IV”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Fourth, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza CLXXXI, page 93:
        The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make / Their clay creator the vain title take / Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war; […]
      • 1839 January, February, April, Thomas De Quincey, “William Wordsworth”, in Autobiographic Sketches: With Recollections of the Lakes (De Quincey’s Works; II), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 263:
        [F]oreseeing the result of a legal contest with so potent a defendant as this leviathan of two counties, and that, under any nominal award, the whole estate of the orphans might be swallowed up on the costs of any suit that should be carried into Chancery, they prudently withdrew from all active measures of opposition, confiding the event to Lord Lonsdale [William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale]'s returning sense of justice.
      • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Twenty-seventh”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC, page 242:
        When she had exhibited these leviathans of public announcement [large canvas scrolls] to the astonished child, she brought forth specimens of the lesser fry in the shape of hand-bills, some of which were couched in the form of parodies on popular melodies, […]
      • 1855 January 5, Anthony Trollope, “The Warden’s Decision”, in The Warden, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 200:
        It [a newspaper article] named some sons of bishops, and grandsons of archbishops; men great in their way, who had redeemed their disgrace in the eyes of many by the enormity of their plunder; and then, having disposed of these leviathans, it descended to Mr Harding.
      • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The ‘Thunder Child’”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 183:
        Keeping his footing on the heaving deck by clutching the bulwarks, my brother looked past this charging leviathan [a torpedo ram warship] at the Martians again, and he saw the three of them now close together, and standing so far out to sea that their tripod supports were almost entirely submerged.
      • 2020 October 7, Cecilia D’Anastasio, “Amazon Wants to ‘Win at Games.’ So Why Hasn’t It?”, in Wired‎[1], San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 July 2025:
        After brute-forcing its way to dominance in so many industries, the tech leviathan may finally have met its match [subtitle].
    3. (political science) Sometimes in the form Leviathan: based on the writings of Thomas Hobbes, the political state, especially a domineering and totalitarian one.
      Holonym: the System
      Coordinate terms: Big Brother, the Man
      • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Common-wealth”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 87:
        [T]he Multitude ſo united in one Perſon, is called a Common-vvealth, in latine Civitas. This is the generation of that great Leviathan, or rather (to ſpeake more reverently) of that Mortall God, to vvhich vvee ovve under the Immortall God, our peace and defence.
      • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “No Innate Practical Principles”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, § 5, page 17:
        [I]f a Chriſtian, vvho has the view of Happineſs and Miſery in another Life, be asked vvhy a Man muſt keep his VVord, he vvill give this as a Reaſon: Becauſe God, vvho has the Povver of eternal Life and Death, requires it of us. But if an Hobbiſt [a follower of the doctrines of Thomas Hobbes] be asked vvhy; he vvill anſvver, Becauſe the Publick requires it, and the Leviathan vvill puniſh you, if you do not.
      • 1951, Hannah Arendt, “The Political Emancipation of the Bourgeoisie”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif.; New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1973, →ISBN, part 2 (Imperialism), page 140:
        The fact is that [Thomas] Hobbes is interested in neither, but concerned exclusively with the political structure itself, and he depicts the features of man according to the needs of the Leviathan.
    5. (obsolete) Synonym of Satan (“the supreme evil spirit in the Abrahamic religions, who tempts humanity into sin; the Devil”).
      • 1595, Bar[nabe] Barnes, “Invocation to the Diuine Father of Sacred Muses. Sonnet XLVIII.”, in A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets, London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, signature [D4], recto:
        [S]eu'n times thrice more glorious the name, / By vvhich thrice povverfull vvee coniure the ſame: / VVhich but repeated doth that Dragon feare, / That olde Leuyathan vvhoſe iavves Lord teare. / […] / Then glorious Captaine, our chiefe God and man, / Breake thou the Iavves of old Leuiathan.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Translingual: †Leviathan

Translations

Adjective

leviathan (not comparable)

  1. Very large; enormous, gargantuan.
    Synonyms: giant, ginormous; see also Thesaurus:large

Translations

References

  1. ^ “Leviathan, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “leviathan, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2025; “leviathan, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1611, →OCLC, Isaiah 27:1, column 2: “In that day the Lord with his ſore and great and ſtrong ſworde ſhall puniſh Leuiathan the piercing ſerpent, even Leuiathan that crooked ſerpent, and hee ſhall ſlay the dragon that is in the Sea.”

Further reading

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