How to use cumbersome in a sentence
17 example sentences · adjective
Cumbersome means burdensome or hindering, as if a weight or drag; vexatious. Example: “Cumbersome machines can endanger operators and slow down production.”
Examples of cumbersome by meaning
adjectiveNot easily managed or handled; awkward or clumsy.
- Cumbersome machines can endanger operators and slow down production.
- The full title of the unified system, the South Eastern & London, Chatham & Dover Railways, was decidedly cumbersome, and for the sake of convenience was shortened to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway.1958 November, “The Why and the Wherefore: South Eastern & Chatham Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 809
adjectiveHard, difficult, and demanding to handle or get around with.
- A slave’s work was as cumbersome as toiling on the fields, or in the mines.
More sentences with cumbersome
- A longer fork makes the bike more cumbersome, but you will be able to huck more stuff.From the entry huck
- These cumbersome carriages are no more in use in Bihar these days.1994, Shankar Dayal Singh, Gandhi's First Step: Champaran Movement, page 205. From the entry palkigari
- Again is Acanthis linaria linaria (Acanthis l. linaria) more cumbersome than Acanthis linaria holboelli?1916, The Emu: Official Organ of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, volume XV, Melbourne, page 66. From the entry tautonymous
- We certainly do not want to take our simple categorical statements and contrapose them into cumbersome natural language.2005, Robert Malcolm Murray, Nebojsa Kujundzic, Critical Reflection: A Textbook for Critical Thinking, →ISBN, page 214. From the entry contrapose
- Producers were freed from cumbersome, costly controls, while the public was assured a portion of any gain from OPEC-led price gouging.1988 April 23, “Time for the Windfall Tax to Fall”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry windfall tax
- The elaborate resulting nomenclature (taxonomy) is admittedly cumbersome.1984, Edward T. Tozer, The Trias and Its Ammonoids The Evolution of a Time Scale, page 23. From the entry ammonitology
- Since parallel parking is more difficult and cumbersome, the public would prefer angle parking because it is relatively effortless.1981 June, Andrea [M.] Vayda, Irving Crespi, “General Public Survey”, in Public Acceptability of Highway Safety Countermeasures: Final…. From the entry angle parking
- Cumbersome and “tinkersome” equipment, where working space and attention are at a premium, becomes in itself a chore.1944, MotorBoating, volume 74, number 1. From the entry tinkersome
- Mounted on lumbering wooden carriages they were hampered with cumbersome harness of breechen and strong side-tackles for running them out.1924, Herman Melville, chapter 20, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.. From the entry breechen
- These messages are most likely to be broadcasted to all people in a user’s friendlist – selecting a specific audience is possible, indeed, but cumbersome.2016, Mirco Schönfeld, Kontextbezug und Authentizität in Sozialen Netzen, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, →ISBN, page IX. From the entry friendlist
- The cumbersome though finely painted charabanc of the late James style is pulled swaying along by a frisky pony of a plot farcical and romantic.2006 Aug 7 & 14, John Updike, “Late Works”, in The New Yorker, page 70. From the entry charabanc
- Because they live in Zuoying district, for example, they will feel that if the store is in another district, it is probably cumbersome to go all the way.2011, Laurent Sausset, “What Location Means in Asian Markets”, in Shopping Behavior in Asia, Paramount Market Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC…. From the entry Zuoying
- However, because this method, as well as the actual paceboard itself, was too cumbersome, we moved to a less rigid method of rate control following one month of this technique.1982, Clinical Aphasiology: Proceedings of the Conference, page 141. From the entry paceboard
- Consult your naval architect, boat builder, engine manufacturer and marine supply dealer about these installable, workable, provable marine engineered pumps and you will never go back to cumbersome, tinkersome equipment.1944, Pacific Fisherman, volume 42. From the entry tinkersome
Meaning of cumbersome
- adjective Burdensome or hindering, as if a weight or drag; vexatious.
- adjective Not easily managed or handled; awkward or clumsy.
- adjective Hard, difficult, and demanding to handle or get around with.
Questions about cumbersome in a sentence
- How do you use cumbersome in a sentence?
- Cumbersome is used as an adjective. For example: “Cumbersome machines can endanger operators and slow down production.”
- What is a short sentence with cumbersome?
- “The elaborate resulting nomenclature (taxonomy) is admittedly cumbersome.”
- What does cumbersome mean?
- Cumbersome means burdensome or hindering, as if a weight or drag; vexatious.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cumbersome (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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