Awkwardly

How to spell awkwardly

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce awkwardly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does awkwardly mean?

1. adverbIn a clumsy, ungainly, or socially uncomfortable manner.

Awkwardly in a sentence

• He held the heavy box awkwardly as he climbed the stairs.

• The meeting ended awkwardly when nobody knew who should speak first.

Where does awkwardly come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word traces back to the Old Norse afugr, meaning 'turned the wrong way' or 'back to front', which entered northern English as the dialect word 'awk', describing something clumsy, perverse, or facing the wrong direction. To this was added the native English ending -ward, meaning 'in the direction of', giving the adjective 'awkward' in the late 1300s, originally with the sense of 'in the wrong direction' or 'untoward'. Over the following centuries the meaning softened from outright wrong-headedness to mere clumsiness and social discomfort, and the adverb 'awkwardly' was formed simply by adding -ly. The spelling is the chief trap: the silent-looking 'w' tucked inside 'awk' has no obvious sound of its own, and the 'ward' ending swallows its vowel into a schwa, so writers often drop a letter. Knowing that the 'awk' part is a genuine old word for clumsy helps fix the unusual cluster in memory.

How the word is built

• awk- (from Old Norse afugr: turned the wrong way)
• -ward (in the direction of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)