Muscular describes a body with big, strong, visible muscles. The swimmer's shoulders, the forearms of a man who lifts crates for a living, a dog built thick across the chest.
The second use is flat and medical: muscular means to do with muscles at all, large or small. A doctor talks about muscular pain, the muscular system, muscular dystrophy — no compliment involved. Then there is the figure of speech, where muscular means forceful and confident: a muscular performance from the second half, a muscular foreign policy. Keep the parts straight — muscle is the noun, muscular the adjective, so he is muscular and never he is muscle. And muscular is about build, not about real strength: wiry people lift surprising weights.
1adjectivemuscularHaving large, well-developed muscles.
“He was short but muscular, with a boxer's neck.”
2adjectiverelatingRelating to the muscles of the body.
“The injury caused muscular pain down her whole leg.”
3adjectiveforcefulForceful and vigorous.
“The government promised a more muscular response to the crisis.”
Muscular is a late-1600s formation: the noun muscle plus the ending -ar, which turns a thing into an adjective about that thing. French has musculaire, built the same way.
Late 17th century; from muscle + -ar. Compare French musculaire.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Adjectives, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 10 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word