clumsy

[ kluhm-zee ]

/ ˈklʌm zi /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR clumsy ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, clum·si·er, clum·si·est.

awkward in movement or action; without skill or grace: He is very clumsy and is always breaking things.

awkwardly done or made; unwieldy; ill-contrived: He made a clumsy, embarrassed apology.

Origin of clumsy

1590–1600; clums benumbed with cold (now obsolete) + -y¹; akin to Middle English clumsen to be stiff with cold, dialectal Swedish klumsig benumbed, awkward, klums numbskull, Old Norse klumsa lockjaw. See clam²

SYNONYMS FOR clumsy

1 ungraceful, ungainly, lumbering, lubberly.

2 unhandy, unskillful, maladroit, inexpert, bungling, bumbling, heavy-handed, inept.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR clumsy ON THESAURUS.COM

ANTONYMS FOR clumsy

2 adroit, skillful.

SEE ANTONYMS FOR clumsy ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM clumsy

clum·si·ly, adverb clum·si·ness, noun

Words nearby clumsy

cluj, cluj-napoca, clumber spaniel, clump, clumping, clumsy, clunes, clung, cluniac, clunk, clunker

Example sentences from the Web for clumsy

He must be pretending to be something, striking some kind of clumsy tribal note.

For a President Today, Talkin' Down Is Speaking American |John McWhorter |August 7, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
But Silva, hapless Silva, got his merely for tangling with the Colombian goalkeeper in a clumsy melee of limbs.

Brazil and Colombia Bring the Ugly Game |Tunku Varadarajan |July 4, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Season one of OITNB chronicled her clumsy, fumbling attempts to get her legs under her so she could run for safety.

‘Orange Is the New Black’ Season Two Is More Bingeworthy Than the First |Kevin Fallon |May 16, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Ignore the clumsy comparisons of the Syria War and the Balkans War.

No One Understands Syria, But Everyone Is Choosing Sides |Michael Moynihan |September 4, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

Rather, after weeks of clumsy diplomacy, they consciously led their nations into battle.

The Utterly Pointless First World War |Michael F. Bishop |May 22, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Long years of service done for him, however, had made him clumsy.

Dangerous Days |Mary Roberts Rinehart
No healing process can help you here to undo your clumsy surgery and want of skill.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 369, July 1846 |Various
But they are more than clumsy, they have an offensive horse-play kind of pleasantry that is nothing less than insult.

Studies in Medival Life and Literature |Edward Tompkins McLaughlin
Jan too will have joined them by now, but he was loutish and clumsy.

The Laughing Cavalier |Baroness Orczy
For all our clumsy tying, the blanket held us together or we would have lost each other.

Land of the Burnt Thigh |Edith Eudora Kohl

British Dictionary definitions for clumsy

clumsy

/ (ˈklʌmzɪ) /

adjective -sier or -siest

lacking in skill or physical coordination

awkwardly constructed or contrived

Derived forms of clumsy

clumsily, adverb clumsiness, noun

Word Origin for clumsy

C16 (in obsolete sense: benumbed with cold; hence, awkward): perhaps from C13 dialect clumse to benumb, probably from Scandinavian; compare Swedish dialect klumsig numb

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

clumsy

adjective, clum·si·er, clum·si·est.

Origin of clumsy

SYNONYMS FOR clumsy

ANTONYMS FOR clumsy

OTHER WORDS FROM clumsy

Words nearby clumsy

Example sentences from the Web for clumsy

British Dictionary definitions for clumsy

adjective -sier or -siest

Derived forms of clumsy

Word Origin for clumsy

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

clumsy

adjective, clum·si·er, clum·si·est.

Origin of clumsy

SYNONYMS FOR clumsy

ANTONYMS FOR clumsy

OTHER WORDS FROM clumsy

Words nearby clumsy

Words related to clumsy

Example sentences from the Web for clumsy

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []) .push({}); British Dictionary definitions for clumsy

adjective -sier or -siest

Derived forms of clumsy

Word Origin for clumsy

British Dictionary definitions for clumsy