clunky
Americanadjective
adjective
-
making a clunking noise
-
informal ponderously ungraceful or unsophisticated
clunky boots
-
awkward or unsophisticated
then you guffaw at clunky dialogue
Etymology
Origin of clunky
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:
The Trojans managed a clunky 12-play opening drive, with King Miller doing most of the heavy lifting, but were forced to settle for a field goal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
The so-called “Iron Heart Army” gathers on a clunky old internet forum, discussing cotton origins, dip-dye varieties, shuttle looms, raw denim fading competitions and the mundanity of daily life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Every user I knew complained it was inconsistent, illogical, cluttered, had clunky navigation and ignored accessibility standards.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
Joe Hart: City were clunky against Arsenal in Cardiff but I don't think they will over-react to one poor game.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
He is big and clunky but not fat.
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
To prepare for a cross-island fight, clunkier cannon artillery has made way for shoot-and-scoot Himars missile platforms, 16 of which arrived in Hawaii this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 13, 2025
In reality, the transition towards that future is a little clunkier — and a little more fraught with questions about whether it’s the one we really want.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2024
The analytic mode of reasoning is clunkier and more time consuming, often exemplified by “reason, mathematics, and cost-benefit analysis,” says Slovic.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 17, 2023
As the National Hurricane Center and the World Meteorological Organization explain, affixing names makes things simpler for keeping track, beating the hay out of using something clunkier, such as, say, longitude-latitude coordinates.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 25, 2022
Are you aware of the debate among some viewers about whether it’s better to watch the series with subtitles or in the clunkier dubbed version, which offers less nuance?
From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2021
Part of it is Sullivan’s brusque direction, which speeds through some character-building dialogue then lingers on scenes that have the clunkiest exposition.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
Even the dungeons, which are the clunkiest parts of the game, are inventive; they’re shopping malls rather than typical dungeons, and boast mundane objects like cellphones and TVs as enemies.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2021
"Pacific Rim," or what I remember of it, struck me as Del Toro's loudest, clunkiest and least essential picture, if also one of his most passionately felt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2018
That is admittedly the film’s clunkiest line, meant to describe the technological power of the Grid, but representative of its largely uninspired screenplay.
From The Verge ● Oct. 18, 2017
Even then, student accounts were invariably on the university's oldest, clunkiest machine.
From Underground by Suelette Dreyfus
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.
