Ponderous vs Momentous - What's the difference?
ponderous | momentous | Related terms |
Heavy, massive, weighty.
* 1879 , , Archibald Malmaison , ch. 5:
* Edgar B. P. Darlington, The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings , ch. 4:
(figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.
* 1781 , , Lives of the Poets , "Dryden":
* 1845 , , Pictures From Italy , ch. 11:
* 1915 , , The Voyage Out , ch. 19:
Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.
* 1915 , , Little Miss Grouch , ch. 10:
* 1919 , , "Kew Gardens":
Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
* 1863 , , "Cousin Phillis":
* 1918 , , A Daughter Of The Land , ch. 2:
(rare) Characterized by or associated with pondering.
* , "Sermon Upon John III" in Works of Thomas Manton (2002 edition), ISBN 9781589603462,
* 1804 , The Literary Magazine and American Register , vol. 2, no. 7,
* 1850 , Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country , vol. 41,
(obsolete) Dense.
Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.
* 1725 , , Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business :
* 1831 , , Homeward Bound , ch. 31:
* 1902 , , The End of the Tether , ch. 3:
* 2007 July 1, , "
Ponderous is a related term of momentous.
As adjectives the difference between ponderous and momentous
is that ponderous is heavy, massive, weighty while momentous is outstanding in importance, of great consequence.ponderous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.
- The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.
- It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.
- In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.
- For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.
- Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.
- Following his steps . . . came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous , the other rosy cheeked and nimble.
- Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.
- [A]s certainly as any one said anything in her presence that she had occasion to repeat, she changed the wording to six-syllabled mouthfuls, delivered with ponderous circumlocution.
p. 464:
- Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.
p. 10:
- The acute and ponderous mind of Dr. Johnson was not always right in its decisions.
p. 242:
- They are the pleasantest of all companions, and perhaps the most affluent in correct opinions of men and things generally , although little addicted to ponderous consideration or deep research.
Synonyms
* heavy, massive * oppressive, seriousDerived terms
* ponderously * ponderousnessmomentous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The reason why I did not publish this book till the end of the last sessions of parliament was, because I did not care to interfere with more momentous affairs.
- "It has been a momentous month, and I hope we shall all retain healthful recollections of it as long as we live."
- What to the other parties was merely the sale of a ship was to him a momentous event involving a radically new view of existence.
Inferior Design," New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2013):
- Natural selection is arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind, because it — alone as far as we know — explains the elegant illusion of design that pervades the living kingdoms and explains, in passing, us.