clunky

«clunky» in Mova's school dictionary: Big, heavy and awkward, not smooth or neat to use, like… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (clunky, clunkier, clunkiest)

meaning for a pupil

1) Big, heavy and awkward, not smooth or neat to use, like clunky old shoes or a clunky machine. tree →

2) (of writing, computer programs) Awkward and not well put together. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life it describes old phones, computers and furniture; in English lessons a teacher may call a sentence clunky if it reads badly. Phrases: "a clunky sentence", "clunky old computer".

examples

• Grandad's old phone is clunky and heavy. tree →
• She wore clunky boots to the party. tree →
• This sentence is clunky; try making it shorter. tree →
• The website is clunky and hard to use. tree →
• The robot moved in a clunky way. tree →
• The clunky old lift rattled up the shaft. tree →

note

Informal. Comparative: clunkier, clunkiest. From the sound "clunk".

In the corpora

• Using a fronted adverbial in every sentence makes writing sound clunky; use them for variety.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «clunky» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.