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I was writing something in English when the word clumsy came to my mind to describe a French concept "inélégant". However, I use clumsy to describe an object and I am not sure it is appropriate. Here is the beginning of the sentence:

While active tags are big and clumsy

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green dreams can sleep furiously – Matt Эллен Mar 2 '12 at 16:10
I have no problem with "clumsy." You might want to consider changing "big," though. "Big" is a rather weak and imprecise adjective; I'm confident you could be more descriptive and improve the sentence at the same time. – J.R. Mar 2 '12 at 16:23
Thank for the advice, what do you think about:"While active tags are outsized and clumsy, passive counterparts are unobtrusive and can even be built-in the object. " – Zonata Mar 2 '12 at 16:27
General reference. – FumbleFingers Mar 2 '12 at 16:36
@Zonata: I think I like "oversized" better than "outsized," but, quite frankly, I don't know enough about active tags to provide a definitive answer. How about "unnecessarily large" - might that work? – J.R. Mar 2 '12 at 17:12
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closed as general reference by FumbleFingers, Kris, RegDwighт♦ Mar 14 '12 at 22:03

This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Yes, I think people refer to objects as "clumsy" all the time. Like, "The furniture box was big and clumsy." "COBOL is a clumsy language." Etc.

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+1 for COBOL reference. – hydroparadise Mar 2 '12 at 22:17
up vote 5 down vote

Yes, objects can be "clumsy". Merriam-Webster includes this definition:

2: awkward or inefficient in use or construction : unwieldy

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up vote 2 down vote

Clumsy is fine. Cumbersome comes to mind too.

dialect : burdensome, troublesome

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