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featherweight

American  
[feth-er-wayt] / ˈfɛð ərˌweɪt /

noun

  1. a boxer or other contestant intermediate in weight between a bantamweight and a lightweight, especially a professional boxer weighing up to 126 pounds (57 kilograms).

  2. an insignificant person or thing.

    He thinks he's a major composer, but he's just a featherweight.


adjective

  1. belonging to the class of featherweights, especially in boxing.

  2. extremely light in weight.

    a featherweight quilt.

  3. unimportant; trifling; slight.

featherweight British  
/ ˈfɛðəˌweɪt /

noun

    1. something very light or of little importance

    2. ( as modifier )

      featherweight considerations

    1. a professional boxer weighing 118–126 pounds (53.5–57 kg)

    2. an amateur boxer weighing 54–57 kg (119–126 pounds)

    3. ( as modifier )

      the featherweight challenger

  1. a wrestler in a similar weight category (usually 126–139 pounds (57–63 kg))

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of featherweight

First recorded in 1805–15; feather + weight


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:

The Sheffield-born fighter became Britain's youngest world champion when he beat Steve Robinson for the WBO featherweight title in Cardiff in 1995, aged 21 and 230 days.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

England's Lone'er Kavanagh takes on Uzebekistan's Ramazan Tamirov in a flyweight contest earlier on the card, while English featherweight Arnold Allen faces American Aaron Pico.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Topuria won the UFC featherweight championship by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in February 2024.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

Take Katz’s T.50: It combines a race-car-like V-12 engine with a featherweight body and can go from 0 to 60 mph in a tick under three seconds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026

What Cavendish was trying to do was measure gravity at this extremely featherweight level.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

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