Giants are actually a type of star that is larger and brighter than the Sun, but not necessarily the largest or brightest stars in the universe. Giants are typically older stars that have exhausted their core hydrogen fuel and expanded in size, becoming red giants or even supergiants. These stars are much larger and more luminous than main sequence stars like the Sun. However, there are other types of stars, such as hypergiants and some types of binary stars, that can be even larger and brighter than giants.