weighty
Americanadjective
-
having considerable weight; heavy; ponderous.
a weighty bundle.
- Antonyms:
- light
-
burdensome or troublesome.
the weightier cares of sovereignty.
-
important or momentous.
weighty negotiations.
- Synonyms:
- consequential, grave, serious, significant
- Antonyms:
- unimportant, light
-
having or exerting influence, power, etc.; influential.
a weighty merchant of Boston.
adjective
-
having great weight
-
important or momentous
-
causing anxiety or worry
Synonym Usage
See heavy.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of weighty
Explanation
Weighty things are either very heavy or extremely important and worrisome. Putting your weighty cat on a diet might be a weighty issue that nags at you. If your luggage is too weighty, you'll have to pay an extra fee at the airport. And if you've got a mind full of weighty problems, you won't be able to fall asleep on your long flight. Sometimes this adjective is also used to mean "influential," like the weighty influence your SAT scores might have on your chances of being accepted at a competitive college.
Vocabulary lists containing weighty
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Picking a major has long been a weighty decision for college students, but the financial stakes appear to be getting higher in the AI era, according to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting President Trump in Washington this week for a summit that will cover weighty topics including trade, artificial-intelligence safety and relations with Taiwan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
The documentary powerfully captures the apocalyptic landscape of Gaza City, its streets reduced to rubble and mangled rebar, and the weighty sense of responsibility shouldered by the few remaining journalists on the ground.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
It also helped show that an animated kids series can tackle weighty themes such as war, genocide, imperialism, sexism, propaganda and political corruption in a serialized story and be a hit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The door slammed and, as if a weighty problem had been lifted from her, Miss Trixie fell into a juvenile slumber.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
A couple of the disputes are a bit weightier than a question of whether someone’s yard goes to here . . . or to here.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
The couple are set to return to the presidential residence, but this time Mutharika's in-tray will be far weightier.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2025
Close, who reprised her Tony-winning performance as Norma in the 2017 Broadway revival and added layers of authenticity burnished by time, made the musical seem weightier than it is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
“Please Don’t Cry” has a weightier R&B influence than past projects.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
And I would feel that heavy rock grow weightier on my chest, while I was lying there on my back, still in bed.
From "The Stars Beneath Our Feet" by David Barclay Moore
The city's historically lucrative wholesale and retail trade remains one of its weightiest sectors, accounting for almost 25 percent of GDP in the first nine months of 2024.
From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026
For nearly 500 years the Court of Session has considered the thorniest and weightiest matters of the moment.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2023
Opinionpalooza, aka June, aka the end of the Supreme Court term, when the year’s weightiest opinions tend to come out.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2023
Admittedly, the lawsuit — essentially, a dispute among insurers over the bill for all that cracked fiberglass and teak — won’t be the weightiest matter heard in federal court in Seattle.
From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2023
But seeking the causes of the downfall of Mexico, we can hardly omit the weightiest cause.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 81, July, 1864 by Various
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
