Bulbous means shaped like a bulb: round, swollen, and often larger at one end than the other. Think of an onion or a light bulb, the two things that give this word its meaning.

A cartoon character might have a bulbous nose that looks like a round blob on their face. Old-fashioned teapots often have bulbous bodies that balloon out in the middle. The bottom of a thermometer has a bulbous tip where the liquid collects. Ships sometimes have bulbous underwater sections at the front that help them move more efficiently through the water.

The word usually describes something that protrudes or sticks out in a rounded way, like the bulbous end of a turkey baster or the bulbous roots of certain plants. When something is bulbous, it has an obvious roundness that makes it look swollen or inflated, as if someone pumped air into it.

While bulbous is purely descriptive, writers sometimes use it to create vivid images: a villain in a story might have a bulbous purple nose, or a strange plant might have bulbous growths along its stem. The word helps readers picture exactly what something looks like.