bulk

== English == === Etymology === 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”). === Pronunciation === enPR: bŭlk, IPA(key): /bʌlk/ Rhymes: -ʌlk === Noun === bulk (countable and uncountable, plural bulks) Size, specifically, volume. Any huge body or structure. The major part of something. Majority, balance. Gist. Dietary fibre. (uncountable, transport) Unpackaged goods when transported in large volumes, e.g. coal, ore, or grain. (countable) A cargo or any items moved or communicated in the manner of cargo. (bodybuilding) Excess body mass, especially muscle. (bodybuilding) A period where one tries to gain muscle. (brane cosmology) A hypothetical higher-dimensional space within which our own four-dimensional universe may exist. (obsolete) The body. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Adjective === bulk (not comparable) Being large in size, mass, or volume (of goods, etc.). Total. Bulk fermentation ==== Derived terms ==== bulken (verb) ==== Translations ==== === Verb === bulk (third-person singular simple present bulks, present participle bulking, simple past and past participle bulked) (intransitive) To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent. (intransitive) To grow in size; to swell or expand. (intransitive) To gain body mass by means of diet, exercise, etc. Coordinate term: cut (transitive) To put or hold in bulk. (transitive, obsolete) To add bulk to; to bulk out. ==== Related terms ==== ==== Translations ====