Meanings
- informalsimilehuge, extravagant.
150 People, Arabs, Camels, Horses, Donkeys and Goats The Eighth Wonder of the World BIGGER THAN “BEN-HUR”
1916, Columbia Theatre advertisement in The Argonaut, Volume 79, No. 2071, page 379
Origin
A comparison to the extravagance of the 1899 play Ben-Hur. Though the phrase is often erroneously claimed to have been coined in reference to the 1959 film, use of the phrase long predates the film.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bigger than Ben Hur. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigger%20than%20Ben%20Hur
“bigger than Ben Hur.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigger%20than%20Ben%20Hur. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bigger than Ben Hur,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigger%20than%20Ben%20Hur.
Source: bigger than Ben Hur on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.