1
as in clumsy
difficult to use or operate especially because of size, weight, or design
getting the ungainly couch up the stairs was a real chore
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in awkward
having or showing an inability to move in a graceful manner
the tree cutter was crushing any unlucky petunias that lay in the path of his ungainly tread
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of ungainly
Examples imported from 1975 through 1985 had rather ungainly impact bumpers, so early, chrome-bumper cars are aesthetically more desirable.
—
Robert Ross, Robb Report, 21 Feb. 2025
You're locked into an ungainly, spread armed, weak kneed
Character: snowplow.
—Outside Online, 19 Feb. 2025
And Farley was wild, crashing through tables, cramming himself into ungainly costumes, and going full red-faced dynamo mode all in pursuit of every last laugh in the building.
—Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 16 Feb. 2025
Straining for its ungainly combination of action, romance and silly comedy, Love Hurts doesn’t fully succeed in any department.
—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for ungainly
Robert Ross, Robb Report, 21 Feb. 2025
You're locked into an ungainly, spread armed, weak kneed
Character: snowplow.
—Outside Online, 19 Feb. 2025
And Farley was wild, crashing through tables, cramming himself into ungainly costumes, and going full red-faced dynamo mode all in pursuit of every last laugh in the building.
—Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 16 Feb. 2025
Straining for its ungainly combination of action, romance and silly comedy, Love Hurts doesn’t fully succeed in any department.
—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for ungainly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ungainly
Adjective
-
And Hank’s own clumsy attempts at hypermasculine child-rearing often come from his father, Cotton (Toby Huss).—
Daniel Dockery,
Vulture,
7 July 2025
-
Gone are are the days of clumsy imagery and texts and fake sign-in pages that can be detected in an instant.—
Zak Doffman,
Forbes.com,
3 July 2025
Adjective
-
The house was a little awkward and needed some work, including in the living room, which had a mix of original wood flooring and vinyl.—
Thomas Fuller,
New York Times,
24 July 2025
-
Yet that has led to an awkward UX for those who lean into portrait mode.—
Ewan Spence,
Forbes.com,
22 July 2025
Adjective
-
The difficulty comes with the 2-in-1 capability, where the laptop's large screen becomes a downright unwieldy tablet.—
Brian Westover,
PC Magazine,
17 July 2025
-
From some perspectives, that expansion is revolutionary; recent studies have found that AI has the potential to provide more accurate medical diagnoses and help make sense of complex and unwieldy data.—
Julia Sullivan,
USA Today,
11 July 2025
Adjective
-
Agnes has a gawky, floppy-haired beauty, a gently appraising stare, quizzically arching eyebrows, and a tendency to listen with her mouth half open, as if in anticipation of a punch line that will take her, and us, by surprise.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
20 June 2025
-
Hiccup, played this time with game and gawky charm by Mason Thames, has been raised to think the only solution to violence is more violence.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
11 June 2025
Adjective
-
Developers have complained for years that the city’s cumbersome construction permitting process takes far too long, adding costs to projects.—
John Aguilar,
Denver Post,
22 July 2025
-
The best thing of all are the performances of early American folk songs that the two men record on cumbersome equipment.—
Taylor Antrim,
Vogue,
21 July 2025
Adjective
-
So, what will moral and democratic revival look like when the ground beneath is unsteady?—
F. Willis Johnson,
Twin Cities,
10 July 2025
-
Facial wrinkles, gray hairs, an unsteady walk: these all signal older age.—
Alice Park,
Time,
9 July 2025
Adjective
-
This event was uncoordinated and did not occur on school grounds.—
Billal Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 June 2025
-
But every song felt uncoordinated, like the band could have spent a few more hours in rehearsal.—
Julius Miller,
Los Angeles Times,
19 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ungainly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ungainly. Accessed 30 Jul. 2025.
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