Dictionary

voluminous en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /vəˈl(j)uː.mɪ.nəs/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /vəˈlu.mə.nəs/ (US)

Etymology

From Late Latin voluminosus, from volumen, from volvō (“roll, turn about”) + -men (noun-forming suffix). Related to volume.

Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to volume or volumes.
2. Consisting of many folds, coils, or convolutions.
   • I remember that the Baroness was clad in a voluminous silk dress, pale grey in colour, and adorned with flounces and a crinoline and train. 1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter VI, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(1867)/VI):
   • Like the Cuscus of the Moluccas, the Galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, and possesses a very voluminous stomach and long convoluted intestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possesses such remarkable tenacity of life, that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by any ordinary means. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 211:
3. Of great volume, or bulk; large.
   • Lukács's voluminous works are devoted for the most part to questions of aesthetics and literary criticism; but it would be wrong to say that he was a critic first and foremost and a philosopher only in a lesser degree. 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume III: The Breakdown, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozkład (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 254:
   • Matters of a much more extraordinary kind are to be the subject of this history, or I should grossly mis-spend my time in writing so voluminous a work […] 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
4. Having written much, or produced many volumes.
   • a voluminous writer

Forms

Deriveds

voluminousness · supervoluminous · voluminously · unvoluminous

Relateds

volumous

Synonyms

copious · diffuse · capacious

Translations (32)

ru объёмистый (of great volume) · az məhsuldar (having written much) · bg обемен (pertaining to volume) · es voluminoso (pertaining to volume) · az irihəcmli (pertaining to volume) · ru плодови́тый (having written much) · sq voluminoz (pertaining to volume) · ro voluminos (pertaining to volume) · ga il-leabhrach (having written much) · no voluminøs (pertaining to volume) · ru объёмный (of great volume) · ka ტევადი (of great volume) · af volumineuze (pertaining to volume) · pt volumoso (pertaining to volume) · ka მოცულობითი (of great volume) · ka ნაყოფიერი (having written much) · fi runsas (pertaining to volume) · nl volumineus (of great volume) · es prolífico (having written much) · bg плодови́т (having written much) · ru масси́вный (of great volume) · ka ტევადი (pertaining to volume) · cs objemný (of great volume) · mt voluminużi (pertaining to volume) · hy ծավալային (pertaining to volume) · bg обе́мист (pertaining to volume) · de voluminös (of great volume) · no omfangsrik (of great volume) · nl omvangrijk (pertaining to volume) · ru ёмкостный (pertaining to volume) · bg обемист (of great volume) · hy ծավալուն (of great volume)