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Added 7 October 2026

bulk

/bʌlk/ noun

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about bulk at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Size, specifically, volume.
Any huge body or structure.
The obese woman couldn't ease her bulk through the narrow passageway.
The major part of something. Majority, balance.
The bulk of my income comes from my office job, but I also teach a couple of evening classes.

adjective

Being large in size, mass, or volume (of goods, etc.).

verb

To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent.
To grow in size; to swell or expand.
To gain body mass by means of diet, exercise, etc.

Origin

From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”). Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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