Ponderous

//ˈpɑn.dɚ.əs// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Heavy, massive, weighty.

    "[H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron."

  2. 2
    Serious, onerous, oppressive. broadly, figuratively

    "It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions."

  3. 3
    Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.

    "[T]he inmates of the coach, by numerous hard, painful joltings, and ponderous, dragging trundlings, are suddenly made sensible of some great change in the character of the road."

  4. 4
    Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.

    "Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes."

  5. 5
    Characterized by or associated with pondering. rare

    "Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Dense. obsolete
Adjective
  1. 1
    having great mass and weight and unwieldiness wordnet
  2. 2
    slow and laborious because of weight wordnet
  3. 3
    labored and dull wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
heavylumberingall thumbsaridawkwardbarren

Example

More examples

"Seals are clumsy and ponderous on land, but very graceful in the water."

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin ponderōsus (“weighty”).

Related phrases

long winded

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.