different between awkward vs graceless

English

Etymology

From awk (“odd, clumsy”) +? -ward.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???kw?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??kw?d/
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /??kw?d/
• Hyphenation: awk?ward

Adverb

awkward (comparative more awkward, superlative most awkward)

1. (obsolete) In a backwards direction.
   • :

     Than groned the knyght for his grymme woundis, and gyrdis to Sir Gawayne and awkewarde hym strykes, and […] kut thorow a vayne […].

Adjective

awkward (comparative awkwarder or more awkward, superlative awkwardest or most awkward)

1. Lacking dexterity in the use of the hands, or of instruments.

   Synonyms: clumsy, lubberly, ungraceful, unhandy

   Antonyms: dexterous, gainly, graceful, handy, skillful

2. Not easily managed or effected; embarrassing.

3. Lacking social skills, or uncomfortable with social interaction.

   Synonym: maladroit

   Antonyms: amiable, cool

4. Perverse; adverse; difficult to handle.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

awkward (plural awkwards)

1. Someone or something that is awkward.

English

Etymology

From Middle English graceles; equivalent to grace +? -less.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???e?sl?s/

Adjective

graceless (comparative more graceless, superlative most graceless)

1. Without grace.
   • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sonnet XXXII, "Equal Troth," in The House of Life, [1]:

     Not by one measure mayst thou mete our love; / For how should I be loved as I love thee? — / I, graceless, joyless, lacking absolutely / All gifts that with thy queenship best behove; — [...]

   • 1972, Roland Barthes, "Toys" in Mythologies (1957), translated by Annette Lavers, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, p. 54,

     Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature.

   • 1995, Susan Sontag, "The Art of Fiction No. 143," Interview with Edward Hirsch published in The Paris Review, No. 137, Winter, 1995, p. 7,

     [Hirsch:] Do you mind being called an intellectual? [Sontag:] Well, one never likes to be called anything. [...] I suppose there will always be a presumption of graceless oddity—especially if one is a woman.

2. Lacking gracefulness
   • 1961, Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy, New York: Signet, p. 64,

     The boy sketched his roughhewn young contadino just in from the fields, naked except for his brache, kneeling to take off his clodhoppers; the flesh tones a sunburned amber, the figure clumsy, with graceless bumpkin muscles; but the face transfused with light as the young lad gazed up at John.

3. (archaic) Unfortunate.

Synonyms

• clumsy

Antonyms

• graceful

Derived terms

• gracelessly
• gracelessness