heavy implies that something has greater density or thickness than the average of its kind or class.
a heavy child for his age
weighty suggests having actual and not just relative weight.
a load of weighty boxes
ponderous implies having great weight because of size and massiveness with resulting great inertia.
ponderous elephants in a circus parade
cumbrous and cumbersome imply heaviness and bulkiness that make for difficulty in grasping, moving, carrying, or manipulating.
wrestled with the cumbrous furniture
early cameras were cumbersome and inconvenient
Example Sentences
Adjective “Is that box too heavy for you to lift?” “No, it's not very heavy.” The truck was carrying a heavy load. The man was six feet tall with a heavy build. Turnout for the election is expected to be heavy. We got caught in heavy traffic. Heavy rains caused flooding in the area. She was wearing sunglasses and heavy makeup. The storm caused heavy damage to the building. The company is facing heavy losses this quarter. a day of heavy fighting Adverb The smoke hung heavy in the air. Noun He played the heavy in film after film. The conference will be attended by several media heavies. They have become one of the industry heavies. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Mary Kay Cabot, Ashley Bastock and Dan Labbe offered up three things to watch during Sunday’s Week 1 contest with a heavy focus on the defense and Myles Garrett. Dan Labbe, cleveland, 10 Sep. 2022 The result, painted in heavy impasto, was tiny (just 9 by 6 inches) and predictably controversial. Nick Glass, CNN, 10 Sep. 2022 Though rainfall generally was moderate across Southern California Friday there was a chance of isolated thunderstorms and heavy downpours into Saturday.CBS News, 10 Sep. 2022 Second-year coach Charles Huff, a former Alabama and Penn State assistant, assembled a roster heavy on Power Five transfers such as Labron from Florida State for the school's first season in the Sun Belt. Tom Coyne, ajc, 10 Sep. 2022 Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko also suggested the Ukrainian troops had retaken Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum, long a focus on the Russian front line and the site of heavy artillery and other fighting. Karl Ritter And Joanna Kozlowska, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Sep. 2022 Those calculations focus primarily on the emissions from heavy machinery and long-distance trucking and shipping.WIRED, 10 Sep. 2022 The contemporary iteration of the park opened in 2012 but was designed with a heavy dose of nostalgia for its original days. Rebecca Treon, Chron, 10 Sep. 2022 For example, why were American women encouraged to torture themselves with cage-like corsets, don yards of cumbersome cloth and carry around a heavy protuberance called a bustle? John Kelly, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2022
Adverb
Palfrey joins a list of heavy-hitting Democratic endorsers in a rare race that has divided some of the state’s most prominent progressives. Emma Platoff, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Aug. 2022 Tropez appeared on the controversial reality series in 2011, which aimed to help troubled youth turn their lives around with heavy-hitting programs. Charmaine Patterson, Peoplemag, 30 Aug. 2022 The bass master brought the heat, as per usual, creating a heavy-hitting show catering to all tastes in bass music. Lisa Kocay, Forbes, 12 Aug. 2022 Batgirl is getting some support and sympathy from heavy-hitting Hollywood talents. James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Aug. 2022 An indicator that the show has become more startup incubator than facilitator for heavy-hitting outdoor businesses? Julie Dugdale, Outside Online, 10 June 2022 In addition to the welterweight title fight between Usman and Edwards, former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold returns to take on the heavy-handed Paulo Costa in the co-main event. Troy L. Smith, cleveland, 20 Aug. 2022 Public anger at the police force for harboring a killer in its ranks was compounded by what many saw as heavy-handed policing of the subsequent vigil. Jill Lawless, ajc, 14 Aug. 2022 Throughout the pandemic, experts and industry leaders have warned that the city's heavy-handed Covid-19 restrictions would drive away residents, travelers and expatriates. Jessie Yeung And Kathleen Magramo, CNN, 12 Aug. 2022
Noun
Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both slipped 0.4% while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 fell 0.5%. Dave Sebastian, WSJ, 4 July 2022 The same cannot be said for Willis, whose distracted and empty performance as the main heavy is hard to watch after the news of his Aphasia diagnosis. Rene Rodriguez, Variety, 17 May 2022 Many performers instinctively go big when playing the heavy. James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Apr. 2022 Of course, Wood’s signature tech-heavy Innovation fund, in which Zoom is the largest holding, is down 66% from its 52-week high. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 9 June 2022 The owner of the Sewol had added extra berths, making the ferry top-heavy.New York Times, 8 June 2022 Bitcoin’s 30-day correlation with the tech-heavy Wall Street index Nasdaq recently rose to a record 0.82. Omkar Godbole, Forbes, 19 May 2022 But odds are that this series will be small-ball heavy, with Powell and Looney playing sparingly. Connor Letourneau, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 May 2022 Though hop heavy, the bitterness is nowhere to be found. Sara Butler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 May 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Adjective and Adverb
Middle English hevy, from Old English hefig; akin to Old High German hebīc heavy, Old English hebban to lift — more at heave entry 1
First Known Use
Adjective
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Adverb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above