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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ungainly.

Clumsy; lacking grace.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ʌnˈɡeɪnli/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/anˈɡæɪnli/Australia

  1. Clumsy; lacking grace.

  2. Gangling

  3. Difficult to move or to manage; unwieldy.

  4. Unsuitable; unprofitable.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From un- (“not”) + gainly (“graceful; becoming; proper, suitable; gracious, kindly”) (from gain (“dexterous; convenient, easy, handy; suitable”), from Old Norse gegn (“fit, serviceable; direct, straight; honest; kindly”) + -ly (suffix forming adjectives from nouns)). Compare dialectal Norwegian Nynorsk ugjegnleg (“stubborn; troublesome”).

noun/ʌnˈɡeɪnli/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/anˈɡæɪnli/Australia

  1. An ungainly person or thing.

    rare
Where this word comes from

From un- (“not”) + gainly (“graceful; becoming; proper, suitable; gracious, kindly”) (from gain (“dexterous; convenient, easy, handy; suitable”), from Old Norse gegn (“fit, serviceable; direct, straight; honest; kindly”) + -ly (suffix forming adjectives from nouns)). Compare dialectal Norwegian Nynorsk ugjegnleg (“stubborn; troublesome”).

adv/ʌnˈɡeɪnli/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/anˈɡæɪnli/Australia

  1. In an ungainly or unbecoming manner; improperly; undeservedly, unduly; unsuitably.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

ungain (from un- + gain (“dexterous; convenient, easy, handy; suitable”)) + -ly.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.