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onerous

UK/ˈɒnəɹəs/US/ˈɑnəɹəs/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,793 of 15,258leans written

Onerous means involving a heavy and unwelcome burden. Onerous duties, an onerous condition, onerous paperwork.

It belongs to duties, terms and obligations rather than to physical weight. In a contract, onerous terms are those that load one side unfairly, which is a term of art.

Definitions of onerous

  1. 1adjectiveonerousInvolving a heavy and unwelcome burden.C1

    “The licence came with conditions so onerous that nobody applied.”

onerous is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin onerosus comes from onus, a burden, which also gives English exonerate, to lift a burden off.

  1. Middle English

    onerous

  2. English, today

    onerous

From Middle English onerous. Compare exonerate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

onerous in the wild

  • By the fourth season, the pig had grown so large and onerous that it kept even the oystermen off the island.

    Governor Island (Connecticut)

  • In the religious exemption context, undue burden is separately defined as anything "more than de minimus", as opposed to onerous or costly burdens.

    Undue hardship

  • The movie is about a little boy who has the onerous task of earning money for his family, but is always enchanted and distracted by music.

    The Silence (1998 film)

  • Smith described it at the time as "the most onerous book I have ever written... and also the biggest book" because of its subject matter.

    Rage (Smith novel)

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.