adjective
Other Word Forms
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.
As a result, photonic chips have remained relatively bulky, and optical imaging systems have faced strict resolution limits.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2026
Pots, pans, sheet trays — anything bulky that’s been used and left out.
From Salon • May 5, 2026
It also says it would "encourage" local authorities to charge only £5 for bulky waste collections, to incentivise households to dispose of waste responsibly.
From BBC • Apr. 27, 2026
Small, two-stroke engines typically found in go-karts, chainsaws—and Iran’s long-range Shahed drone—are simple and reliable, but can be comparatively bulky and inefficient.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Over and over she did this, until it felt thick and bulky, uncomfortable, and tight.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
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.
