ponderous
/ˈpɑn.dɚ.əs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.47 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
adj
Characterized by or associated with pondering.
Example Sentences
- "[H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron."
- "The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push."
- "Set against the background of the American civil war, with Keaton a cunning but unskilled driver, unaided, of the ponderous giant of a locomotive, it remains not only probably the funniest film about railways ever made, but one of the funniest silent films to retain its comic power over today's more sophisticated audiences."
- "It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions."
- "In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase."
- "For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity."
Etymology
Ultimately from Latin ponderōsus (“weighty”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɑn.dɚ.əs/
- British English: /ˈpɒn.dəɹ.əs/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more ponderous (comparative)
most ponderous (superlative)