unwieldy
Americanadjective
adjective
-
too heavy, large, or awkwardly shaped to be easily handled
-
ungainly; clumsy
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unwieldy
First recorded in 1350–1400, unwieldy is from the Middle English word unweldy. See un- 1, wieldy
Explanation
If you see an unwieldy person coming down the aisle of the bus with an unwieldy box, you may want to step aside because that's a double dose of clumsy. It's an awkward person carrying a box that is difficult to manage. Something that is wieldy is easy to control or handle, so something unwieldy is not. However, the un- form of the word is much more common. The base word wieldy has its roots in Old English, meaning "to handle or control" — used usually in reference to a weapon. You would not want an unwieldy person attempting to wield an unwieldy sword!
Vocabulary lists containing unwieldy
The Giver
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Power Prefix: un-
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This Week in Words: September 29 - October 5, 2018
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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:
It’s been derided as unwieldy and ugly and unable to match other pickups in basic functionality.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
Still, investors’ concerns about how unwieldy CVS has become haven’t gone away entirely.
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
The new machine could do tasks about 1,000 times as fast as the electromechanical calculators that preceded it, but it was unwieldy, to say the least.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
This flawed strategy, led by co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly, resulted in Chelsea appointing a promising 41-year-old manager, inevitably out of his depth at this unwieldy football beast.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
It was years before we realized that his unwieldy rules were designed to protect us from the evil possibilities of the mean-spirited world around us.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
By last week, 41 nations had joined UNESCO, a body with an unwieldy name and an unwieldier problem: the crisis in world culture.
From Time Magazine Archive
The workingmen looked all the coarser and unwieldier by contrast.
From The Song of Songs by Sudermann, Hermann
He came up with the largest, unwieldiest and financially nuttiest proposal in the history of Pasadena Playhouse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
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.
