clumsy

[ kluhm-zee ]

adjective

, clum·si·er, clum·si·est.

1. awkward in movement or action; without skill or grace:

   He is very clumsy and is always breaking things.

   Synonyms: lubberly, lumbering, ungainly, ungraceful

2. awkwardly done or made; unwieldy; ill-contrived:

   He made a clumsy, embarrassed apology.

   Synonyms: inept, heavy-handed, bumbling, inexpert, maladroit, unskillful, unhandy

   Antonyms: skillful, adroit

clumsy

/ ˈklʌmzɪ /

adjective

1. lacking in skill or physical coordination
2. awkwardly constructed or contrived

Derived Forms

• ˈclumsiness, noun
• ˈclumsily, adverb

Other Words From

• clum·si·ly adverb
• clum·si·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of clumsy¹

1590–1600; clums benumbed with cold (now obsolete) + -y ¹; akin to Middle English clumsen to be stiff with cold, dialectal Swedish klumsig benumbed, awkward, klums numbskull, Old Norse klumsa lockjaw. See clam ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of clumsy¹

C16 (in obsolete sense: benumbed with cold; hence, awkward): perhaps from C13 dialect clumse to benumb, probably from Scandinavian; compare Swedish dialect klumsig numb

Example Sentences

Equipped with foreign DNA, the little guys nevertheless seemed totally normal, nosing around the lab and running everywhere without obvious clumsy stumbles.

From Singularity Hub 

The colonizers spun this through their clumsy tongues and came up with “carel” as a sweeping term for all the food the Indigenous people ate.

From Ozy

Each of Liverpool’s first two goals received a Leeds reply within 10 minutes, but a clumsy lunge by Rodrigo Moreno gave Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah the opportunity to convert the winning penalty shot.

From FiveThirtyEight

Reynolds and Mani are very good at playing hapless and clumsy with endearing rapport, and their general helplessness comes off not as a stale joke but as a concerning hint of things to come.

From Outside Online

Here’s a practical guide to finding the glass out there for you, whether you’re frugal, clumsy, or just running out of kitchen space.

From Eater

He must be pretending to be something, striking some kind of clumsy tribal note.

From The Daily Beast

But Silva, hapless Silva, got his merely for tangling with the Colombian goalkeeper in a clumsy melee of limbs.

From The Daily Beast

Season one of OITNB chronicled her clumsy, fumbling attempts to get her legs under her so she could run for safety.

From The Daily Beast

Ignore the clumsy comparisons of the Syria War and the Balkans War.

From The Daily Beast

Rather, after weeks of clumsy diplomacy, they consciously led their nations into battle.

From The Daily Beast

Scientists tell us that from the point of view of optics the human eye is a clumsy instrument poorly contrived for its work.

From Project Gutenberg

With which magnanimous sentiment he turned on his clumsy heel, and entered his apartment again.

From Project Gutenberg

They merely used such instruments as fate offered, however trivial, however clumsy.

From Project Gutenberg

He loses sight of the supreme fact that after all, in its own poor, clumsy fashion, the machine does work.

From Project Gutenberg

When the owner can afford it, an ample supply of cushions and shawls makes the clumsy vehicle more comfortable for its occupant.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bulky
• heavy-handed
• inept
• ponderous
• ungainly
• unwieldy