Variety is the spice of life, I suppose.

I wholeheartedly agree. Large and big and gigantic and huge do NOT mean the same thing.

I think the best way to get to the root of it is to look at opposites.

Small and Big – are these opposites? When you're in kindergarten you're taught they are. Sesame Street teaches you they are. But I tend to think Little is the opposite of Big. First you're a Little kid, then you're a Big kid – but you may still be small. Big can mean stature, but it can also mean age. Big brother as opposed to Little brother.

Small and Large – I think these are the correct opposite pairing. Although it's not so much "opposites" really as it is a comparison. A size small is not really opposite of size large. It's just smaller. Large and small should be used for sizes or amounts. A large sum of money, a small shoe.

Giant has to be stature. I don't know what it's opposite would be. My brain is leaning towards "dwarf" but I think that may be due to fantasy and lore which tells me giants are THINGS, not descriptions. Giant is larger than large – but it should more often actually mean *taller*. Like, if someone outweighs me by a couple hundred pounds but is the same height, I can't really call that person giant. It could also mean "longer." My husband has "giant" shoes, they're double the size of mine in length. But you wouldn't call a stretch limousine giant in comparison to a normal car… it's just longer.

Huge – man, English has too many words. What sets huge aside from the others is that it's a comparison of amount, not size, not stature, not age. A gallon is huge compared to an ounce of the same liquid. The beach is huge is comparison to a toddler's sandbox. In both examples, you could say "bigger than," but that could also imply just a larger sandbox or more than an ounce. Unfortunately, people use huge in my previous example that I used for giant. A person should not be called huge, but a waistline, a pair of jeans, a body mass amount could be. Huge almost requires an exponential difference. If I were a mathematician, I'd create the formula for huge.

I think "medium grande" is funny. Medium big? lol

Small, medium or large -- I'm pretty sure that when it comes to food or beverages, the sizes have changed in the past 20 years. Which is why when I order a beverage nowadays, I always ask for no ice ("No hielo por favor"). Lack of ice increases the volume of my drink!

When it comes to people, small, medium or large can refer to the size of their hearts, their heads, their breasts, their dicks, their mouths, their feet, etc. With some people, size matters. When it comes to clothing and shoes, size certainly does matter a lot.

Humongous and gargantuan are two of my favorite words for truly big things. Big like in leviathan. Or aircraft carrier.

Colossal referred to things as big as a column (architecture). Gargantuan was coined after the ravenous Rabelais character, Gargantua. Humongous is a newish word and means big. How big? As big as you can imagine.