An extremely large and luminous star with a radius hundreds of times larger than the Sun and masses typically 10-70 times solar mass. These stars represent a late evolutionary phase of massive stars and have relatively short lifespans.
From Latin 'super' meaning above or beyond, and 'giant' from Greek 'gigas' meaning large. The term was coined in the early 20th century to distinguish these extremely large stars from regular giant stars.
If you replaced our Sun with the red supergiant Betelgeuse, its surface would extend past the orbit of Mars! These cosmic monsters burn through their nuclear fuel so quickly that they live only millions of years before exploding as supernovae.
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