Is "huge" slightly informal?

Question

Is "huge" slightly informal?

In the following sentence,

First, some people insist that Japan doesn’t need to adopt [an] austerity policy because it has a huge amount of assets at home and abroad.

I felt the word "huge" was inappropriate, thinking that it was too informal for this context. (Whereas if someone said "OMG, I have a bloody huge hangover", "huge" wouldn't be too informal)

However, meaning 1 of huge in wiktionary and dictionary.com don't describe it as slangy or informal.

Am I mistaken in thinking that it's informal? Perhaps I only think it's informal because it's a popular word in informal speech because you can lengthen the "u".

Answer 1

I don't regard "it has a huge amount of assets" as informal, but I do regard it as bad writing, and would instead say "it has huge assets". Note, besides not regarding it as informal, I also don't regard it as formal, nor would I regard it as formal if a synonym such as major, substantial, significant were substituted. All of those quantities are quite indefinite, and I think a formal statement (in sense of official statement) should give more-precise information about assets or debt.

Answer 2

It’s probably neither here nor there, but this Google N-Gram makes me wonder whether its perceived slanginess is about its comparative newness:

Answer 3

I don't think it's informal. The informal part of it depends on the way you intonate it. If you intoned it as a long u, it would sound funny and I think informal. But in writing it wouldn't make that big of a difference unless you were writing a play script.

Answer 4

As a real-life example: In a first draft I described my client's customers as ranging from 'monster manufacturers with a national footprint' down to 'mom-and-pop doughnut shops'. One faction of reviewers objected to 'monster' as too slangy, another faction defended it as residing in the same register as 'mom-and-pop' (they didn't use those terms, but that's what they meant). In the end, the two factions compromised on 'huge'.

Answer 5

Huge does not seem informal but it does seem a bit emotive. I seems to impart the opinion of the speaker in the example given.

Answer 6

My advice

My English teacher told me that the word: huge is informal. My assignment was to write a formal E-mail with a formal letter/report as attachment. I used huge everywhere, luckily I still got a high grade because she is a friendly teacher. Your teacher or person who grades your assignment might not let you off the hook that easily as mine.

She gave me alternative examples to use instead of huge:
E.g. a huge project = a sizable/long/complicated/lengthy project

It depends if you're writing something as an assignment for school or when you're just writing something formal to business partners or something. I don't think it's a big deal in the real world, but at school teachers might think otherwise. My advice would be: If it's formal writing exercise, assignment or exam for school, avoid the word huge, especially in assignments whereby you're writing something formal or business-related.

British English considers it informal

This answer also depends on where you live and what kind of English you get thought and what your school assignment wants you to use. In British English huge is an informal word, see Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/huge (under 2)

Answer 7

Huge means large -- physically. Huge house, wave. If you want to say significant, important or a lot (quantity) then say THAT. It is not that it is informal or formal so much that it is inaccurate.