Bulkiness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The property of having a considerably large and cumbersome nature that hinders ease of handling
2. The condition of being substantial and heavy, which poses challenges in transportation or management
3. The quality of being notably large and difficult to manage or move

Etymology: Bulkiness is about as plain as English word-building gets: it is "bulky" with the suffix "-ness" attached, and that suffix is the more interesting piece. The "-ness" ending is an old Germanic formation, descended from an Old English noun meaning roughly "state or quality of," and it is one of the most productive ways English has turned an adjective into a noun for a condition. Bulkiness therefore names the quality of being bulky, the state of taking up awkward, unwieldy room. The adjective "bulky" is the older part of the story. It is the base that "-ness" was added to, and it carries the sense of something large in a clumsy, hard-to-handle way. The noun form simply lets speakers talk about that quality as a thing in itself, so that a parcel, a sweater, or a piece of furniture can be described by its bulkiness rather than by the adjective alone.

Synonyms: heaviness, massiveness, size, weight, clumsiness

Antonyms: slimness, lightness, compactness, neatness, slenderness