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as in boring
causing weariness, restlessness, or lack of interest fell asleep during the ponderous speech

Synonyms & Similar Words

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How does the adjective ponderous differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of ponderous are cumbersome, cumbrous, heavy, and weighty. While all these words mean "having great weight," ponderous implies having great weight because of size and massiveness with resulting great inertia.

ponderous elephants in a circus parade

How do cumbrous and cumbersome relate to one another, in the sense of ponderous?

Both cumbrous and cumbersome imply heaviness and bulkiness that make for difficulty in grasping, moving, carrying, or manipulating.

wrestled with the cumbrous furniture
early cameras were cumbersome and inconvenient

When could heavy be used to replace ponderous?

The synonyms heavy and ponderous are sometimes interchangeable, but heavy implies that something has greater density or thickness than the average of its kind or class.

a heavy child for his age

When is it sensible to use weighty instead of ponderous?

In some situations, the words weighty and ponderous are roughly equivalent. However, weighty suggests having actual and not just relative weight.

a load of weighty boxes

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ponderous Yes, Invasion has received mixed reviews for its ponderous pacing (especially in the first season). Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 5 Aug. 2025 This year’s popular new music has been decidedly downbeat, with ballads and ponderous country songs topping the charts, Errico said. Scottie Andrew, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2025 Yet somehow, the IQ manages to look more streamlined than ponderous. Lawrence Ulrich, Robb Report, 16 July 2025 But despite those skillful trappings, the story soon feels ponderous. Dennis Harvey, Variety, 11 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for ponderous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ponderous
Adjective
  • Farming takes so long and is so boring, some of us said.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The Clark County Fire Department said that tunnel boring operations had been temporarily halted at the site pending an ongoing accident investigation.
    Jessica Mathews, Fortune, 11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • In short, the massive popularity of its original anime ‘80s run wasn’t matched by its merchandising, and that’s something that is now being belatedly addressed.
    Ollie Barder, Forbes.com, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Musk has long said Starship’s sheer size and power could make brand-new types of missions possible, including carrying groups of humans to Mars and deploying massive new space telescopes.
    Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The rubber sole is also important for clumsy gals like myself.
    Alyssa Grabinski, PEOPLE, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Camels seem slow, hippos clumsy, phoenixes unstable, lions lazy.
    Francois Botha, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • During the prelims in Tokyo, Seville had a concerning slow reaction to the starting gun.
    Katelyn Hutchison, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Parisian servers may have an undeserved reputation for being slow, but instead of complaining or searching for faster service elsewhere, settle in with a book or newspaper.
    Lane Nieset, Travel + Leisure, 14 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Ketamine therapy’s most common short-term side effects are dizziness and nausea, but in extreme cases, long-term, heavy use of ketamine is associated with memory problems, gastrointestinal issues, and urinary tract infections, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
    Rachel Hale, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2025
  • When heavy rain occurs, there is a potential for flooding, particularly in areas that are low-lying or prone to floods.
    NC Weather Bot, Charlotte Observer, 10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • While there is little doubt about the outcome of the Fed meeting, there are still questions over who exactly will be voting—setting up some very awkward dynamics.
    Jason Ma, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2025
  • This leaves the broader discourse around Kirk’s assassination in an awkward position, deprived of the certainty that so many crave.
    Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Without a strict hierarchy or single decision-maker, our process can sometimes be slow, messy, or even tiring.
    Caterina De Biasio, Vogue, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The film is a mess, opaque in its argument and tiring in its effortful weirdness, and yet in its best moments has a hypnotic pull.
    Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The result is slow, siloed and cumbersome for all parties involved.
    Jason Truppi, Fortune, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Kazlauskas told Ars that about 300 users can be added each day due to the cumbersome and allegedly shifting process for porting over data.
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 10 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Ponderous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ponderous. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.

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