heft
Americannoun
-
weight; heaviness.
It was a rather flimsy chair, without much heft to it.
-
significance or importance.
-
Archaic. the bulk or main part.
verb (used with object)
-
hefts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hefted,
past participle, past
-
hefting
present participle
-
to test the weight of by lifting and balancing.
He hefted the spear for a few moments, and then flung it at the foe.
-
to heave; hoist.
verb
-
to assess the weight of (something) by lifting
-
to lift
noun
-
weight
-
the main part
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
heftsimple
-
heftssimple
-
have heftedperfect
-
has heftedperfect
-
am heftingprogressive
-
are heftingprogressive
-
is heftingprogressive
-
have been heftingperfect progressive
-
has been heftingperfect progressive
Past
-
heftedsimple
-
had heftedperfect
-
was heftingprogressive
-
were heftingprogressive
-
had been heftingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of heft
Explanation
Heft is the bulk or weight of a person or thing. You might shift the heft of that huge bag of dog food you just bought over to your left arm while you use your right hand to open the door. The heft of your big suitcase might make you question the wisdom of packing so many books. You can use heft as a verb, too — you could move the books into your backpack and then heft it back onto your shoulder. Heft comes from the verb heave, "lift with effort," modeled on verb/noun combinations like "thieve" and "theft" or "weave" and "weft."
Vocabulary lists containing heft
"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 2 of the epic poem
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Prisoner B-3087
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Wolf Hollow
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Behind the scenes, the company leverages its corporate heft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
He might find them, but his team is lacking ideas, conviction, composure, physical and psychological heft, creativity, ruthlessness and stomach for a fight.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
It’s not exactly the kind of metaphor you want to hang an entire film on, lest its relative simplicity give way under the heft of a feature film’s many parts.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
With such sentiment and statistical heft, the reaction to Nvidia’s earnings can thus still shape the broader market.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
All the time Turner held him up and wondered at how light he was, so light it hardly seemed his body could heft his soul.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
Another possibility, yet to be modeled, is that the gravitational hefts of Venus and Earth scattered the material further out before some worked its way back to our planet.
From New York Times ● May 23, 2022
This time, players are in the shoes of Gordon Freeman, who hefts his iconic crowbar as the game ends.
From The Verge ● Mar. 27, 2020
Your father hefts his pack onto his back and you smear zinc on your face, following him up the trail.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2018
“EVERYBODY thinks this is a 50-pound sack of seeds,” says Steven Fabijanski as he hefts a large white bag onto a table.
From Economist ● Mar. 1, 2018
He hefts it for weight, reads the name of the sender on the envelope and the address, looks at the handwriting, and studies the postmark and the date.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Calculations of its hefted flight angle, altitude and length of flight suggested it had the range to reach the continental U.S. if fired on a conventional trajectory.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 19, 2023
So he hefted a ginormous statue of the Virgin Mary and walked on the water of the river Dnieper to get it out of harm’s way.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2022
To demonstrate the magnitude of this Borgesian Library of Babel, Cruz reached beneath his desk and hefted up a tower of four little books.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 23, 2022
How would any new replacement sheep become hefted with no older sheep to show them?
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2021
She hefted herself up another foot—Kaz brought us here—and then another.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
She prepares dinner, then hurries to an Amazon warehouse for a 6 1/2-hour shift sorting, scanning and hefting bulky items.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
Other footage shows Scouts hefting umbrellas as they line up in the sun for facilities, and flooding convenience stores to buy ice and ice cream.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 4, 2023
A photographer saw a man hefting the statuette and stopped him and relieved him of the Oscar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2022
“That first day selling was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she recalls, hefting her bundles under her arm.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 10, 2019
I had to keep hefting it back up around my shoulders because the straps wouldn’t hold tight, and every time I did that, another fork or knife found a way to poke into my spine.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
