as in clumsy
difficult to use or operate especially because of size, weight, or design
an unwieldy machine that requires two people to operate it
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Recent Examples of unwieldy
They are celebrated in one era as the pinnacle of capital allocation and condemned in the next as an unwieldy collection of unrelated assets.
—
Robert Daugherty, Forbes.com, 24 May 2026
Prune back any unwieldy branches with these popular shears, which have sold 40,000 times in the past month.
—Stephanie Osmanski, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 May 2026
And setting up a new one could be even more difficult and unwieldy.
—Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
Another two or three drafts of distillation is exactly what the unwieldy Parallel Tales could have used.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for unwieldy
Robert Daugherty, Forbes.com, 24 May 2026
Prune back any unwieldy branches with these popular shears, which have sold 40,000 times in the past month.
—Stephanie Osmanski, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 May 2026
And setting up a new one could be even more difficult and unwieldy.
—Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
Another two or three drafts of distillation is exactly what the unwieldy Parallel Tales could have used.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for unwieldy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unwieldy
Adjective
-
After the zapfest on Earth, the anti-climactic tussle between the forces of good and evil occurs back on Eternia, where He-Man and his nemesis cross swords in a clumsy fight that’s not only predictable but also photographed and edited poorly.—
Jeffrey Ressner,
HollywoodReporter,
3 June 2026
-
The simple walking pattern adopted by fish, which the Cambridge researchers call an ‘undulating tripod gait’, can appear to be quite clumsy and involves too much flopping.—
Abhishek Bhardwaj,
Interesting Engineering,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
The disparity has forced Goldman into the awkward position of defending a seat he’s held for two terms by running, at least in part, as the outsider.—
Russell Berman,
The Atlantic,
7 June 2026
-
Between see-through fabrics, ill-fitting straps, and awkward hemlines, there are plenty of misses.—
Better Homes & Gardens,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 June 2026
Adjective
-
Frette linen bathrobes were soft, not overly cumbersome like most robes tend to be.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
4 June 2026
-
The first image in the exhibition announced the playful tenor of the oversize works, which often verged on the ludic despite the lack of spontaneity owing to the cumbersome Land Camera.—
James Quandt,
Artforum,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
Seydoux tromps through the film with a masculine heaviness — a sense of dysphoria that translates to her character’s ungainly bearing.—
Daniel D'Addario,
Variety,
18 May 2026
-
In its back-to-back knottiness, the album takes on an ungainly quality that, deliberate or not, sets up roadblocks to prolonged enjoyment.—
Maxie Younger,
Pitchfork,
27 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Unlike clunky acupressure bands or funky glasses, the Essence Essential Oil Nasal Diffusers are surprisingly discreet.—
Francesca Krempa,
Travel + Leisure,
9 June 2026
-
The men’s matches in the slot this year have varied from short and sharp (Alexander Zverev’s one-hour-and-48-minute defeat of Tomás Macháč) to long and clunky (Félix Auger-Aliassime’s three-hour-and-48-minute win over Brandon Nakashima).—
Matthew Futterman,
New York Times,
31 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unwieldy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unwieldy. Accessed 11 Jun. 2026.
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