ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Ponderous

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /ˈpɒn.dəɹ.əs/ · Part of speech adjective

Quick meaning: Ponderous is an adjective meaning Heavy, massive, weighty.

Meaning

Heavy, massive, weighty.

More Meanings

  1. (figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.
  2. Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.
  3. Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
  4. (rare) Characterized by or associated with pondering.
  5. (obsolete) Dense.

Example Sentences

[H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.
In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.
The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.
Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.

Synonyms for ponderous

Depending on context, synonyms include heavy, massive, oppressive, serious, lumbering, uninteresting.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include heavy, lumbering, heavy-footed, uninteresting, weighty, hefty.

Related Dictionary Tools

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.