clumsy
Americanadjective
-
clumsier,
comparative
-
clumsiest
superlative
-
awkward in movement or action; without skill or grace.
He is very clumsy and is always breaking things.
- Synonyms:
- lubberly, lumbering, ungainly, ungraceful
-
awkwardly done or made; unwieldy; ill-contrived.
He made a clumsy, embarrassed apology.
- Synonyms:
- inept, heavy-handed, bumbling, inexpert, maladroit, unskillful, unhandy
adjective
-
lacking in skill or physical coordination
-
awkwardly constructed or contrived
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of clumsy
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
Explanation
Someone clumsy is a klutz. They're awkward, ungraceful, and walk like they have two left feet. Something hard to handle — like a huge box — is also clumsy. A badly told story is told in a clumsy way, and a couch that's hard to move clumsy to carry. But mostly being clumsy is embarrassing. Dropping things, tripping a lot, and stumbling are all examples of clumsiness. Clumsy people usually aren't too good at sports or dancing. And you certainly don't want a clumsy surgeon. Most people are a little clumsy when they're teenagers — growing so fast makes it hard to be sure of yourself physically.
Vocabulary lists containing clumsy
Awkward Moments
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"Dulce et Decorum Est," by Wilfred Owen
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List 5
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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:
“We’ve been kind of, somewhat clumsy about it in the past,” Chief Financial Officer Lanny Baker told me recently.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
“If we show that robots are kind of clumsy and a little stupid right now, it puts people at ease.”
From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026
He also advocated what he called "some trickier changes", such as changing the unpopular, clumsy chicane at Turn Five, and the section from there to Turn Seven.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Planners call this the sequence-of-returns risk, which is a clumsy name for something simple.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
For, I cannot adequately express what pain it gave me to think that Estella should show any favour to a contemptible, clumsy, sulky booby, so very far below the average.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Camille was funnier and weirder and clumsier — and happier.
From Salon ● May 30, 2025
And indeed, in clumsier hands, the episodic humiliations of Less, “this slapstick, ridiculous, zigzagging queer,” might quickly pall.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 26, 2022
And yet, the camera I lust after now is exactly this X1D, even while it’s heavier, sometimes clumsier, and consistently slower than most other cameras.
From The Verge ● Feb. 12, 2018
Instead, most chose to go with somewhat clumsier The Artist Formerly Known As Prince or simply The Artist.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2017
But even in the dim light, she could tell Kaz was moving too slowly, his gloved fingers clumsier than she’d ever seen them.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
But there’s an earnest, yearning passion here that makes the film feel vital even at its clumsiest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2023
Nevertheless, the script also makes amends in some of the clumsiest, most nightmarish plot developments imaginable.
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2021
The clumsiest amongst us has taken a daily ballet class, and isn’t half bad.
From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2020
The seven-speed Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has a feature called Active Rev Matching, which automatically adjusts the engine’s speed to smooth out your clumsiest shifts—something drivers once had to learn through practice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 24, 2018
And before I could say Yankee Doodle, I was swept onto the marble dance floor and forced to divide my time among four of the South’s clumsiest, rock-footed mutineers.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
