ponderous

heavy and slow

TRANSLATION

schwer, massig, gewichtig; schwerfällig

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

Drama critic Charles Spencer once remarked of a rather ponderous
play that the writing "has all the lightness of the pudding they used to
serve at dinner at my school".

Did you
know?

Did you know?

Ponderous comes from Middle English, from Middle French pondereux, and
from Latin ponderosus. Ponder-, pondus = weight

It has been used in English since the 15th century.

Various dictionary meanings are:

1 : of very great weight

2 : unwieldy or clumsy because of weight and size

3 : oppressively or unpleasantly dull : LIFELESS (ponderous prose)

synonym HEAVY

- pon-der-ous-ly adverb
- pon-der-ous-ness noun

More Word Quizzes: