as in clumsy
difficult to use or operate especially because of size, weight, or design
even my five-year-old laptop seems clunky next to some of the really slim new models
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Recent Examples of clunky
Over the course of less than an hour, the capsule will shed its clunky service module and dive toward Earth at 24,000 miles per hour.
—
Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 9 Apr. 2026
Nexcom has moved online, but its digital storefront can be clunky.
—Gabrielle Fonrouge,ryan Baker, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2026
Wear your bulkiest pieces on the plane A puffy parka or clunky pair of boots can take up a solid chunk of suitcase space.
—Hannah Chubb, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2026
Correspondence was at the very least clunky, and at most, reckless.
—Rachyl Jones, semafor.com, 27 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for clunky
Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 9 Apr. 2026
Nexcom has moved online, but its digital storefront can be clunky.
—Gabrielle Fonrouge,ryan Baker, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2026
Wear your bulkiest pieces on the plane A puffy parka or clunky pair of boots can take up a solid chunk of suitcase space.
—Hannah Chubb, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2026
Correspondence was at the very least clunky, and at most, reckless.
—Rachyl Jones, semafor.com, 27 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for clunky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clunky
Adjective
-
Perugino’s compositions tend to be clumsy in their parallels—two people on the left, two people on the right—and the skin typically looks like candle wax.—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
-
The collapse of the talks wasn’t the fault of bad faith or clumsy diplomacy.—
Farah N. Jan,
The Conversation,
14 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The Big Bang Theory followed a group of socially awkward scientist friends navigating work, friendship and relationships, with Parsons portraying Sheldon Cooper, a brilliant but eccentric physicist known for his rigid routines, lack of social awareness and sharp intellect.—
Virginia Chamlee,
PEOPLE,
20 Apr. 2026
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Which leaves marijuana in an awkward middle ground as a substance that’s too normalized to generate inherent conflict, and too mild to drive high-stakes drama.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
20 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Taking photos and developing them involved a big, bulky camera, a tripod, chemicals, a dark-room tent and cumbersome wet-plate apparatus.—
Marcia Greenwood,
USA Today,
15 Apr. 2026
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Employees, frustrated by cumbersome corporate tools or lack of access, are quietly using personal ChatGPT, Claude, and other consumer AI models on the side, often without telling IT or compliance.—
Elena Alfaro,
Harvard Business Review,
14 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The high court did not opine on the process of refunds, and government officials at first suggested the process could prove unwieldy.—
Alina Selyukh,
NPR,
19 Apr. 2026
-
The empire was territorially vast but unwieldy and politically fragile by the end of his reign.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
14 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Clunky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clunky. Accessed 26 Apr. 2026.
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