heavily
Americanadverb
-
with a great weight or burden.
a heavily loaded wagon.
-
in a manner suggestive of carrying a great weight; ponderously; lumberingly.
He walked heavily across the room.
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in an oppressive manner.
Cares weigh heavily upon him.
-
to suffer heavily.
-
densely; thickly.
heavily wooded.
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in large amounts or in great quantities; very much.
It rained heavily on Tuesday.
-
without animation or vigor; in a dull manner; sluggishly.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heavily
First recorded before 900; Middle English hevyly, Old English hefiglīce; equivalent to heavy + -ly
Explanation
Anything that happens heavily is weighty, extensive, or labored. A car falling off its jack will crash heavily to the ground, and if you are a new runner, you'll be breathing heavily after the first mile. Sometimes the adverb heavily simply describes the action of something heavy — like kids' feet pounding heavily up the stairs, or an airplane landing heavily on the runway. There's also the "large amount" or "a lot" meaning, like when rain falls heavily or a director is heavily influenced by the cartoons of her childhood. Breathing heavily, on the other hand, means "with effort."
Vocabulary lists containing heavily
"Too Young to Drive?" and "Rules of the Road"
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 5
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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.
Its orbit would have been about four times more eccentric than that of Jupiter's moon Europa, whose icy shell is heavily fractured by the continual gravitational stretching and squeezing it experiences.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
Data contributes heavily to the price range City believe a player falls in, and the valuation is never a single number.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Meta makes most of its money from advertising but it’s been investing heavily in building new AI hardware and data centers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
The question of whether to buy a house with an HOA — or not — also heavily depends on the type of property.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
She didn’t know how far she had to go, but she didn’t dare load the boat too heavily.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
