English Explanatory Dictionary

bulk

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Size, specifically, volume.
  2. Any huge body or structure.
  3. The major part of something.
  4. Majority, balance.
  5. Gist.
  6. Dietary fibre.
  7. Unpackaged goods when transported in large volumes, e.g. coal, ore, or grain.
  8. A cargo or any items moved or communicated in the manner of cargo.
  9. Excess body mass, especially muscle.
  10. A period where one tries to gain muscle.
  11. A hypothetical higher-dimensional space within which our own four-dimensional universe may exist.
  12. The body.
adj
  1. Being large in size, mass, or volume (of goods, etc.).
  2. Total.
verb
  1. To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent.
  2. To grow in size; to swell or expand.
  3. To gain body mass by means of diet, exercise, etc.
  4. To put or hold in bulk.
  5. To add bulk to; to bulk out.

Pronunciation

bŭlk /bʌlk/ en-us-bulk.ogg /bʊlk/

Word forms

bulk bulks bulking bulked

Etymology

From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”). Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).

Related words

bulker bulkhead bulk out bulk up bulky in bulk

Derived words

barrel bulk break bulk break-bulk bulk-add bulkage bulk bill bulk billing bulk cargo bulk carrier bulk data bulk defect bulk density bulk eraser bulkish bulk large bulklike bulk liquid bulk mining bulksome bulk supply bulk technology bulk-up bulk viscosity bulkwise clean bulk debulk dirty bulk microbulk ore-bulk-oil carrier outbulk overbulk permabulk pseudobulk semibulk bulken

Translations

Bulgarian: главна част Catalan: gruix Czech: většina Czech: velká část Finnish: suurin osa Finnish: valtaosa French: gros French: ensemble French: essentiel French: prise de masse German: Großteil Hungarian: nagyja Italian: grosso Norwegian Bokmål: masse Portuguese: grosso Russian: бо́льшая часть Russian: основна́я ма́сса Spanish: grueso Swedish: lejonpart Swedish: merpart
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