maladroit
adjective
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Maladroit Comes From Old and Middle French
Maladroit is perhaps an awkward fit for casual speech—outside of the occasional Weezer album title, one most often encounters it in formal writing—but you can remember its meaning by breaking it down into its French building blocks. The first is the word mal, meaning "badly," which may be familiar from English words including malaise ("a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being") and malodorous ("having a bad odor"). The second is adroit, meaning "having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as maladroit to describe the clumsy and incompetent among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact. We'd adopted adroit from them a short time before.
Synonyms
Examples of maladroit in a Sentence
Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post, 22 July 2024
MacFarlane, who performed many of the characters (including the hapless Peter, the maniacal baby Stewie and the erudite dog Brian), was joined by Alex Borstein (as faithful wife Lois), Seth Green (socially maladroit son Chris) and Mila Kunis (perpetually scapegoated daughter Meg).
—Dave Itzkoff, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
Every possible strategy that Senate Republicans might be following is maladroit to a degree one associates less with the Senate than with the House under Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
—Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 30 Aug. 2023
Yes, there is always a danger that a maladroit statement or some baffling syntax will go viral.
—Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 3 July 2023
Factor in a politically maladroit Afghan government and endemic corruption, and once the Taliban began to roll up government surrenders in the provinces, their offensive took on a life of its own.
—The Editors, National Review, 15 Aug. 2021
The series is itself like a socially awkward teen-age nerd—charming but maladroit, heedless, a little exhausting.
—Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 10 May 2020
His own party criticizes what many call his maladroit communication on an anxiety-inducing subject.
—Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 9 Dec. 2019
Playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon concoct for her a suitor who’s just as introverted and socially maladroit, the newly wealthy Arthur de Bourgh.
—Dominic P. Papatola, Twin Cities, 24 Nov. 2019
Dictionary Entries Near maladroit
Cite this Entry
“Maladroit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maladroit. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
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maladroit
adjective
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