1. Causing inconvenience
   "they arrived at an awkward time"
    
2. Lacking grace or skill in manner or movement or performance
   "too awkward with a needle to make her own clothes"; "his clumsy fingers produced an awkward knot"; "an awkward dancer"; "an awkward gesture"
    
3. Socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner
   "awkward and reserved at parties";
   - ill at ease, uneasy
    
4. Hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment
   "awkward moments in the discussion"; "an awkward pause followed his remark";
   - embarrassing, sticky, unenviable
    
5. Difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape
   "an awkward bundle to carry";
   - bunglesome, clumsy, ungainly
    
6. Not elegant or graceful in expression
   "an awkward prose style";
   - clumsy, cumbersome, inapt, inept, ill-chosen, clunky [informal]

Derived forms: awkwardest, awkwarder

See also: clumsy, clunky [informal], difficult, gawky, graceless, hard, inconvenient, infelicitous, klutzy [N. Amer, informal], labored [US], laboured [Brit, Cdn], maladroit, strained, ugly, unbeautiful, uncomfortable, ungainly, ungraceful, unmanageable, unwieldy, wooden

Antonym: graceful

Encyclopedia: Awkward