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
adverbponderousness
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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
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To their right, on a column, is a ponderous, blood-orange face.
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
Synonym Discussion of ponderous
PONDEROUS Defined for English Language Learners
ponderous
playDefinition of ponderous for English Language Learners
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: very boring or dull
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: slow or awkward because of weight and size
PONDEROUS Defined for Kids
ponderous
playDefinition of ponderous for Students
1 : very heavy a ponderous stone
2 : slow or clumsy because of weight and size The elephant moved with ponderous steps.
3 : unpleasantly dull a ponderous speech
ponderously
adverbLearn More about ponderous
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for ponderous Spanish Central: Translation of ponderous Nglish: Translation of ponderous for Spanish speakers
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