AWKWARDNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does awkwardness mean? 

• AWKWARDNESS (noun)
  The noun AWKWARDNESS has 5 senses:

1. unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training

2. the quality of an embarrassing situation

3. the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are ungainly or inelegant

4. the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)

5. trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape

  Familiarity information: AWKWARDNESS used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AWKWARDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

awkwardness; clumsiness; ineptitude; ineptness; maladroitness; slowness

Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):

unskillfulness (a lack of cognitive skill)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "awkwardness"):

rustiness (ineptitude or awkwardness as a consequence of age or lack of practice)

Derivation:

awkward (not elegant or graceful in expression)

awkward (lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of an embarrassing situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

awkwardness; nuisance value

Context example:

he sensed the awkwardness of his proposal

Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):

disadvantage (the quality of having an inferior or less favorable position)

Derivation:

awkward (hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The carriage of someone whose movements and posture are ungainly or inelegant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

awkwardness; clumsiness

Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):

bearing; carriage; posture (characteristic way of bearing one's body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "awkwardness"):

gracelessness; ungracefulness (an unpleasant lack of grace in carriage or form or movement or expression)

gawkiness; ungainliness (the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are extremely ungainly and inelegant)

stiffness (the property of moving with pain or difficulty)

Antonym:

gracefulness (beautiful carriage)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

awkwardness; clumsiness; gracelessness; stiffness

Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):

inelegance (the quality of lacking refinement and good taste)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "awkwardness"):

woodenness (the quality of being wooden and awkward)

gaucherie; rusticity (the quality of being rustic or gauche)

Derivation:

awkward (socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Trouble in carrying or managing caused by bulk or shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

awkwardness; cumbersomeness; unwieldiness

Context example:

the movers cursed the unwieldiness of the big piano

Hypernyms ("awkwardness" is a kind of...):

inconvenience; troublesomeness; worriment (a difficulty that causes anxiety)

Derivation:

awkward (difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape)

 Context examples 

When he entered he found the other man waiting, standing near the stove, a certain stiff awkwardness and indecision in his manner.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

As to your foolishness and awkwardness, my dear Fanny, believe me, you never have a shadow of either, but in using the words so improperly.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“I remember the review,” she went on hastily, becoming aware of the awkwardness of her remark; “that too, too flattering review.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There was a little awkwardness at first in their discourse on another subject.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Between her agitation, and her natural awkwardness in getting out of the cart, Peggotty was making a most extraordinary festoon of herself, but I felt too blank and strange to tell her so.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was no awkwardness on his part, no numb tongue.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The older a person grows, Harriet, the more important it is that their manners should not be bad; the more glaring and disgusting any loudness, or coarseness, or awkwardness becomes.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

At first, amid the applause of the gods, he betrayed a trifle of his old self-consciousness and awkwardness.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She knew but little of their meeting in Derbyshire, and therefore felt for the awkwardness which must attend her sister, in seeing him almost for the first time after receiving his explanatory letter.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)