Adjacent Words

Ponderous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PON'DEROUS, a. [L. ponderosus.]
1. Very heavy; weighty; as a ponderous shield; a ponderous load.
2. Important; momentous; as a ponderous project. [This application of the word is unusual.]
3. Forcible; strongly impulsive; as a motion vehement or ponderous; a ponderous blow.
Ponderous spar, heavy spar, or baryte.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: slow and laborious because of weight; "the heavy tread of tired troops"; "moved with a lumbering sag-bellied trot"; "ponderous prehistoric beasts"; "a ponderous yawn" [syn: heavy, lumbering, ponderous]
2: having great mass and weight and unwieldiness; "a ponderous stone"; "a ponderous burden"; "ponderous weapons"
3: labored and dull; "a ponderous speech"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French ponderus, from Latin ponderosus, from ponder-, pondus weight Date: 15th century 1. of very great weight 2. unwieldy or clumsy because of weight and size 3. oppressively or unpleasantly dull ; lifeless <ponderous prose> Synonyms: see heavy • ponderously adverb • ponderousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 heavy; unwieldy. 2 laborious. 3 (of style etc.) dull; tedious. Derivatives: ponderosity n. ponderously adv. ponderousness n. Etymology: ME f. L ponderosus f. pondus -eris weight

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ponderous Pon"der*ous, a. [L. ponderosus, from pondus, -eris, a weight: cf. F. pond['e]reux. See Ponder.] 1. Very heavy; weighty; as, a ponderous shield; a ponderous load; the ponderous elephant. The sepulcher . . . Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws. --Shak. 2. Important; momentous; forcible. ``Your more ponderous and settled project.'' --Shak. 3. Heavy; dull; wanting; lightless or spirit; as, a ponderous style; a ponderous joke. Ponderous spar (Min.), heavy spar, or barytes. See Barite.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Ponderous writing or speech is very serious, uses more words than necessary, and is rather dull. He had a dense, ponderous style. ADJ [disapproval] • ponderously ...the rather ponderously titled 'Recommendation for National Reconciliation and Salvation'. ADV: ADV with v 2. A movement or action that is ponderous is very slow or clumsy. (WRITTEN) His steps were heavy and ponderous. ADJ • ponderously Wilson shifted ponderously in his chair. ADV: ADV with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Heavy, weighty, massive, bulky. 2. Momentous, important, weighty. 3. Forcible, mighty.

Moby Thesaurus

Latinate, all thumbs, arid, awkward, barren, big, blah, blank, bloodless, blunderheaded, blundering, bombastic, boorish, boring, bulky, bumbling, bungling, butterfingered, careless, characterless, clownish, clumsy, clumsy-fisted, cold, colorless, contrary, cramped, crosswise, cumbersome, cumbrous, dead, dismal, draggy, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, fade, fat, fingers all thumbs, flat, forced, formal, fumbling, gauche, gawkish, gawky, graceless, grandiloquent, guinde, halting, ham-fisted, ham-handed, heavy, heavy-handed, heavyweight, hefty, ho-hum, hollow, huge, hulking, hulky, impractical, inane, inconvenient, inelegant, inexcitable, inflated, inkhorn, insipid, jejune, labored, laborious, large, leaden, left-hand, left-handed, lifeless, long-winded, loutish, low-spirited, lubberly, lumbering, lumpish, lumpy, maladroit, massive, massy, oafish, overdone, overweight, pale, pallid, pedestrian, perverse, plodding, pointless, poky, pompous, prolix, sesquipedalian, sloppy, slow, solemn, spiritless, sterile, stiff, stilted, stodgy, stuffy, superficial, tasteless, tedious, tiresome, turgid, uncouth, ungainly, ungraceful, unhandy, unlively, unmanageable, unwieldy, vapid, verbose, weighty, windy, wooden, wordy