Bulk Meaning
/bʌlk/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounSize, specifically, volume.
nounAny huge body or structure.
Sentence Examples
We buy stationery in bulk.
Great bulk does not always mean great weight.
The bulk of the population lives in cities.
CEFR Practice Quiz
To save money, she bought rice in ____ from the wholesale store.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I decided to buy the rice in ____ to save some money this month city.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The Quantity of Matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly."
— 1729, I Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, page 1:
"“ Didn't Balbus say this morning that, if a body is immersed in liquid, it displaces as much liquid as is equal to its own bulk? ” said Hugh."
— 1885, Lewis Carroll, “Knot IX”, in A Tangled Tale, page 58:
"By this process the body of the oyster acquires such a plumpness and rotundity, and its bulk and weight are so increased, as to materially increase its selling value."
— 1887, W. O. Atwater, “The Chemistry of Oyster-Fattening”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 32, number November, page 77:
"The cliff-dwellers had chipped and chipped away at this boulder till it rested its tremendous bulk upon a mere pin-point of its surface."
— 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
"In the case of such a contract, there must be an implied condition that the bulk shall correspond with the sample in quality"
— 1911, Encyclopædia Britannica, volume 24, «Sample», page 119:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
To save money, she bought rice in ____ from the wholesale store.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I decided to buy the rice in ____ to save some money this month city.