leviathan

Reader's Digest 8月号の記事 "COLA CRISIS" からの抜粋です。
Amid stalled or declining sales in Western markets, soft drink leviathans Coca-Cola and Pessi have turned their attention to markets in developing nations with a propensity twards a sweet tooth.
上の文中に出てきた "leviathans" は少なくともここでは大企業を示しているのは明らかです。この言葉はカタカナで何度かこれまでにも見聞きした記憶がありますが、英語のスペルを見たのは初めての気がします。（忘れているだけで初めてではない可能性も高い。）
一応意味を辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A thing that is very large or powerful, especially a ship.: Over the past 43 years he has worked in the trenches at such corporate leviathans as IBM and Xerox, and in between he has found the time to be an entrepreneur, running 21 companies in 17 industries at one time or another.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: something that is very large and powerful: The factory is a towering leviathan in the middle of the town.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: something or someone that is extremely large and powerful: The US is seen as an economic leviathan.