If you're looking for a way to describe something as larger than life, try the storied adjective colossal. Colossal means "gigantic" or "extraordinarily great in size, extent, or degree." It comes from the noun colossus, "a statue of gigantic size," which is most often used in reference to the legendary bronze statue of the sun god Helios in the ancient Greek city of Rhodes. This statue stood approximately 105 feet tall and was among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Less than sixty years after its completion, the statue collapsed in an earthquake. While the adjective colossal is occasionally used in happy contexts, the term seems to have carried some of that early wreckage into modern use. You'll most often find colossal describing failures, mistakes, and losses.

The verb create, at its most general, means to bring something into being. To devise something is to plan it or think it up. The main action of devise occurs in the mind. An economist may devise a plan or a strategy, for instance, with the goal of creating jobs or wealth. In some older uses, devise carried nefarious and deceptive undertones, as in "The conspirators devised the downfall of the ruler." Nowadays, devise is more neutral, though it may still have a plot or two up its sleeve.

The word resilient is used to talk about a particular kind of strength. When used to describe objects or materials, resilient means "returning to original form after being bent or stretched." In discussion of people, resilient conveys a buoyancy in the face of hardship or misfortune. A person who readily recovers or bounces back from adversity, illness, depression, or other types of difficult circumstances may be described as resilient. More commonly, resilient is used in discussion of systems and organizations, such as economies, communities, and cities, and increasingly, we see resilient in the descriptor phrase climate resilient, signifying the readiness and capability of systems and organizations to adapt to changing climate conditions.