heavy metal

American  

noun

1. any metal with a specific gravity of 5.0 or greater, especially one that is toxic to organisms, as lead, mercury, copper, and cadmium.

2. aggressive and heavily amplified rock music, commonly performed by groups that wear spectacular or bizarre costumes.

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heavy metal British  

noun

1. 1. a type of rock music characterized by a strong beat and amplified instrumental effects, sometimes with violent, or nihilistic lyrics

   2. ( as modifier )

      a heavy-metal band

2. a metal with a high specific gravity

3. military large guns or shot

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Other Word Forms

• heavy-metal adjective

Etymology

Origin of heavy metal

1860–65, for literal sense

Example Sentences

The firestorm ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena, killing 31, destroying more than 16,000 structures and contaminating others with toxins and heavy metals.

From Los Angeles Times

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary last summer told Fox News that “moms want baby formula without seed oil, without corn syrup, without added sugar, without arsenic and lead and other heavy metals.”

From The Wall Street Journal

The instrument also paved the way to an aesthetics of electricity—feedback, distortion, fuzz, sheer volume—that led to such genres as heavy metal, punk, grunge and shoegaze.

From The Wall Street Journal

In addition to clothing that protects against the wind and cold, anyone attempting to climb steep terrain covered in snow and ice should have mountaineering boots, heavy metal crampons and an ice ax.

From Los Angeles Times

Lead is the heaviest of the heavy metals and, like mercury and arsenic, it accumulates in living tissue and is harmful even at low concentrations.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• melody
• opera
• piece
• rap
• rock
• singing
• soul
• tune