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cumbersome

UK/ˈkʌmbəsəm/US/ˈkʌmbɚsəm/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,967 of 15,258leans written

Cumbersome means so big and awkward it is hard to carry or use. A cumbersome machine, cumbersome procedures, cumbersome and slow.

It applies to processes as readily as objects, and the complaint about a cumbersome procedure is that it is unwieldy rather than wrong. The word is built on cumber, an old verb meaning to burden, which survives in encumber and in the name Cumberland's obstacle-strewn ground.

Definitions of cumbersome

  1. 1adjectivecumbersomeSo big and awkward it is hard to carry or use.C1

    “The old television was so cumbersome that it took two of us to carry it.”

    synonyms: unwieldy, bulky

cumbersome is a quality of awkwardness.

Also accepted in games: unwieldy, bulky

Where it comes from

Cumber plus -some. Cumber meant to burden or hinder, and survives in encumber and encumbrance.

  1. Middle English

    cumbyrsum

  2. English, today

    cumbersome

From Middle English cumbyrsum, cummyrsum; equivalent to cumber + some. Compare encumber and incumbent.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives

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cumbersome in the wild

  • Capital letters were cumbersome in New York Point, each being four dots wide, and so were not generally used.

    New York Point

  • Props may also be employed, such as glasses or hats, but these are now considered somewhat old-fashioned and cumbersome: the voice is expected to carry the act.

    Impressionist (entertainment)

  • Kevin Gilbertson, a web developer, launched the service in January 2002 as a way to post links in newsgroup postings which frequently had long, cumbersome addresses.

    TinyURL

  • "SLAM originally was an acronym but we found it too cumbersome to explain.

    SLAM project

  • The instrument replaced another instrument they played, the aarbajo, which was larger and more cumbersome.

    Gandarbha

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.