heavy

adjective · adverb · noun · verb

Simple meaning

Of comparatively great physical weight or density.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hehvee

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɛvi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

Of comparatively great physical weight or density
of any physical thing
Having great weight.
Marked by great psychological weight; weighted down especially with sadness or troubles or weariness
of a topic
Serious, somber.
Unusually great in degree or quantity or number
of a rate of flow
High, great.

adverb

indiacolloquial
Very
In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.

noun

A prominent figure; a "major player".

verb

AustraliaNew Zealandinformal
To use power or wealth to exert influence on, e.g., governments or corporations; to pressure.
To sadden.
often with "up"
To make heavier.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of comparatively great physical weight or density

Used this way, heavy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Moderate
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: No strong connotation
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

heavy industryheavy rainheavy metalheavy fireheavy artilleryheavy burdenheavy lossesheavy load

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

heavilyadverbDerived adverb
To a considerable degree.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

heavy creamnounCompound term
Contains more than 36% butterfat.
heavy-dutyadjectiveCompound term
Designed for heavy work.
heavy-footedadjectiveCompound term
Lacking ease or lightness.
heavy hitternounCompound term
An influential person who works hard to promote the causes they are interested in.
heavy hydrogennounCompound term
An isotope of hydrogen which has one neutron (as opposed to zero neutrons in hydrogen).
heavy liftingnounCompound term
Difficult work.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.