ponderous

adjective pon·der·ous \ ˈpän-d(ə-)rəs \

Updated on: 12 May 2018

Definition of ponderous

1 : of very great weight

2 : unwieldy or clumsy because of weight and size

3 : oppressively or unpleasantly dull : lifeless

ponderous prose

—

ponderously

adverb

—

ponderousness

noun

See ponderous defined for English-language learners

See ponderous defined for kids

ponderous was our Word of the Day on 07/05/2010. Hear the podcast!

Examples of ponderous in a Sentence

students struggling to stay awake during a ponderous lecture
fell asleep during the ponderous speech

Recent Examples of ponderous from the Web

His director should have done the same, by retooling the original Hyde’s depravities for a woman and ejecting the script’s more ponderous moralizing.

— jeannette catsoulis, New York Times, "Review: Zapped by Lightning, a French Teacher Becomes ‘Mrs. Hyde’," 26 Apr. 2018
Critics found the paintings a bit ponderous and didn’t care for the muted gray color scheme.

— john kelly, Washington Post, "Hunting for the art squirrels of Washington: Artists have rendered the critters in all sorts of ways," 20 Apr. 2018
On the encouraging side, the video was a joke, and even a dusty attempt at humor was a welcome change of pace coming from a show whose first season was relentlessly dour, ponderous and stuck up its own maze.

— james poniewozik, New York Times, "Review: ‘Westworld’ Gets a Partial Upgrade for Season 2," 18 Apr. 2018
In perhaps a nod to that request, Cuba's official press was largely devoid of ponderous coverage reflecting on the Castro family ceding power, and focused instead on the technical aspects of the transition.

— author: anthony faiola, Anchorage Daily News, "Castro era in Cuba nears end as a single candidate for leadership change emerges," 18 Apr. 2018
When Mercury is retrograde, thought and communication are less direct, more ponderous, and meandering.

— alice bell, Vogue, "18 Items to Brighten Your Mood During Mercury Retrograde," 6 Apr. 2018
Early on, some obvious foreshadowing and convenient plot developments keep the story from becoming ponderous.

— adi robertson, The Verge, "A Quiet Place blends horror and drama in a silent world," 5 Apr. 2018
Though no one has been charged in the alleged recruiting bribery scheme that prompted Pitino’s firing at the University of Louisville, the likelihood of it leading to another NCAA infractions case poses a ponderous hurdle for the Hall of Fame coach.

— tim sullivan, The Courier-Journal, "Rick Pitino could be a home run hire — if you ignore his baggage | Tim Sullivan," 31 Mar. 2018
While the comfy ride and spacious cabin are excellent, the Expedition is plagued by ponderous handling and some inferior interior materials.

— eric stafford, Car and Driver Blog, "2018 Ford Expedition In-Depth Review: The Luxury-Liner Game Remains Unchanged," 29 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ponderous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Serious History of ponderous

Ponderous is ultimately from the Latin word for "weight," namely, "pondus" (which also gave us "ponder" and "preponderance" and is related to "pound"). We adopted "ponderous" with the literal sense "heavy" from Anglo-French ponderus in the 15th century, and early on we appended a figurative sense of "weighty," that is, "serious" or "important." But we stopped using the "serious" sense of "ponderous" around 200 years ago - perhaps because in the meantime we'd imposed on it a different figurative sense of "dull and lifeless," which we still use today.

Origin and Etymology of ponderous

Middle English, from Anglo-French ponderus, from Latin ponderosus, from ponder-, pondus weight

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

ponderous Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of ponderous

heavy, weighty, ponderous, cumbrous, cumbersome mean having great weight. heavy implies that something has greater density or thickness than the average of its kind or class.