adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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bulkinessnoun
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overbulkinessnoun
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overbulkyadjective
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unbulkyadjective
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bulkilyadverb
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overbulkilyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of bulky
Explanation
A giant box you need to carry to the post office, clothes you wear in the snow — both of these things are bulky or large and difficult to deal with. Inside the word bulky you see the word bulk which refers to the size of something, usually something large. When something is bulky, it has a lot of size or heft, though it is not necessarily heavy. Pillows, for example, are bulky. It's just big in an inconvenient way. Thick yarn, or a sweater made from thick yarn, is also said to be bulky. It's thicker than your average yarn.
Vocabulary lists containing bulky
Fish in a Tree
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The Boy Who Invented TV
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Everything, Everything
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She told me that mosquito populations spiked in areas with more human-made mosquito habitat, such as abandoned buildings, unkempt vacant lots, and piles of discarded bulky items.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Snap is making the counterargument: Users will want extra capabilities so much that they’ll overcome their reluctance to wear those bulky frames.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
“Management sees a broader market” once the company condenses its bulky, rack-mounted systems into smaller chips in a few years, he wrote.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
Leamington's 'Library Of Things' opened earlier this year to let people borrow everyday items that might be too expensive or too bulky to buy and keep.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
It was bulky and bolted to an iron workstation in the basement.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Like skinny jeans, they eventually became unavoidable — and thus a bit stale, giving way to looser fits and bulkier “dad” sneakers.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Though it appears bulkier than the I-Pace, the Ojai is only 1% larger, the company said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
For instance, B&M, Home Bargain and The Range shops have large garden centres and sell bulkier items which are easier to collect by car.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2025
In a non-polar solvent like methylcyclohexane, chlorophyll derivatives with smaller second-generation dendrons were stacked into helical fibers, while those with bulkier, third-generation dendrons remained in smaller, disc-shaped aggregates.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2024
The insosuit was far bulkier and far uglier than the regulation spacesuit; but withal considerably lighter, due to the fact that they were entirely nonmetallic in composition.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
The bulkiest and most elaborate productions typically require the space offered by an opera house's main theater, and operas often do provide spectacle on a grand scale.
From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2024
Fat Bear Week has become a weeklong, bracket-style elimination contest that pits the bulkiest bears of Katmai National Park against one another.
From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
Only the biggest, bulkiest planets are sizable enough to benefit from this effect.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 23, 2022
The bulkiest items catch your eye first - suitcases, jackets and an array of musical instruments.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2022
The full moon shines on the bulkiest lump.
From "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
