adjective
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big and strong
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characterized by vigour or force
a hefty blow
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large, bulky, or heavy
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sizable; involving a large amount of money
a hefty bill
a hefty wage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of hefty
Explanation
Something that's hefty is big and heavy. When you have to lug a hefty suitcase around, it helps if it has wheels. Hefty objects are large and bulky, and you can describe people as hefty when they're big and brawny and strong. When you buy a hefty bag of dog food for your hefty bull mastiff, you might want to ask a hefty young employee if she'll help you carry it to your car. Hefty comes from heft, which means both "to lift" and "weight or heaviness."
Vocabulary lists containing hefty
The Omnivore's Dilemma
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The Wednesday Wars
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Hello, Universe
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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:
Denmark recently has run surpluses, enabling the government to offer voters a hefty cut in electricity taxes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
Issuance looks set to be particularly hefty early next year, which might concern investors, they said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
And Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, told MarketWatch that absorbing Chipotle would likely require hefty financing at a time when bond yields have risen sharply.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
His team also pocketed a hefty sum -- several million dollars -- for travelling to Luanda in November 2025 for a friendly marking Angola's 50th Independence Day celebrations.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
The book was so thick and hefty that I knew it was a reference book of some kind, a text, maybe even an encyclopedia.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
“Not Suitable for Work,” premiering Tuesday on Hulu, is an amiable, sweet-tempered romantic ensemble comedy with a heftier than usual emphasis on professional ambition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
We’re facing problems heftier than choosing whether to watch a morally dubious show about a magical boy and his friends.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2026
Heading into this year, some Wall Street analysts expected heftier tax refunds as a result of President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act to free up consumer spending.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 30, 2026
The Ibex is built on a Ford F-250 Super Duty, the heftier cousin of the popular F-150 pickup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026
People were everywhere; some working in the quarry itself, others scattered about the hillside; the heftier among the men splitting boulders, the women and children chipping fragments off the larger stones.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Special awards have helped drive some of the heftiest CEO pay packages to dramatic heights, including those for Zaslav and CrowdStrike’s George Kurtz.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Consuming such large amounts of food can lead to massive weight increases, with the spring cubs like 806 Jr seeing some of the heftiest jumps.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2023
In other words, like sauropods in general, the heftiest sauropods occupied somewhat different ecological niches from one another.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 15, 2023
The generalized fourth-power law explains why road damage is disproportionately inflicted by the heftiest vehicles.
From Slate ● Jun. 28, 2023
"Then it's the heftiest bobcat I've ever heard about," said Phil.
From The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers by Claude A. Labelle
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.
