VOLUMINOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does voluminous mean? 

• VOLUMINOUS (adjective)
  The adjective VOLUMINOUS has 3 senses:

1. large in volume or bulk

2. marked by repeated turns and bends

3. large in number or quantity (especially of discourse)

  Familiarity information: VOLUMINOUS used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VOLUMINOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Large in volume or bulk

Context example:

a voluminous skirt

Similar:

big; large (above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

Derivation:

volume (the property of something that is great in magnitude)

volume (the amount of 3-dimensional space occupied by an object)

voluminosity (greatness of volume)

voluminously (in a voluminous manner)

voluminousness (greatness of volume)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by repeated turns and bends

Synonyms:

tortuous; twisting; twisty; voluminous; winding

Context example:

had to steer the car down a twisty track

Similar:

crooked (having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Large in number or quantity (especially of discourse)

Synonyms:

copious; voluminous

Context example:

a subject of voluminous legislation

Similar:

abundant (present in great quantity)

Derivation:

voluminosity (greatness of volume)

voluminously (in a voluminous manner)

voluminousness (greatness of volume)

 Context examples 

For a year Jo and her Professor worked and waited, hoped and loved, met occasionally, and wrote such voluminous letters that the rise in the price of paper was accounted for, Laurie said.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Large, phagocytic mononuclear leukocytes produced in the vertebrate bone marrow and released into the blood; contain a large, oval or somewhat indented nucleus surrounded by voluminous cytoplasm and numerous organelles.

(Monocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

Now, had the same young lady been engaged with a volume of the Spectator, instead of such a work, how proudly would she have produced the book, and told its name; though the chances must be against her being occupied by any part of that voluminous publication, of which either the matter or manner would not disgust a young person of taste: the substance of its papers so often consisting in the statement of improbable circumstances, unnatural characters, and topics of conversation which no longer concern anyone living; and their language, too, frequently so coarse as to give no very favourable idea of the age that could endure it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Helen Della Delmar (proclaimed with a flourish of trumpets and rolling of tomtoms to be the greatest woman poet in the United States) denied Brissenden a seat beside her on Pegasus and wrote voluminous letters to the public, proving that he was no poet.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The equipages are as varied as the company and attract as much attention, especially the low basket barouches in which ladies drive themselves, with a pair of dashing ponies, gay nets to keep their voluminous flounces from overflowing the diminutive vehicles, and little grooms on the perch behind.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)