weight

American  

[wayt] / weɪt /

noun

• weights
  plural

1. 

   the amount or quantity of heaviness or mass; amount a thing weighs.

2. Physics. the force that gravitation exerts upon a body, equal to the mass of the body times the local acceleration of gravity: commonly taken, in a region of constant gravitational acceleration, as a measure of mass.

3. a system of units for expressing heaviness or mass.

   avoirdupois weight.

4. a unit of heaviness or mass.

   The pound is a common weight in English-speaking countries.

5. a body of determinate mass, as of metal, for using on a balance or scale in weighing objects, substances, etc.

6. a specific quantity of a substance that is determined by weighing or that weighs a fixed amount.

   a half-ounce weight of gold dust.

7. any heavy load, mass, or object.

   Put down that weight and rest your arms.

8. an object used or useful solely because of its heaviness.

   the weights of a clock.

9. a mental or moral burden, as of care, sorrow, or responsibility.

   Knowing you are safe takes a weight off my mind.

10. importance, moment, consequence, or effective influence.

    an opinion of great weight.

    Synonyms:

    significance, import, efficacy, power, effect

11. Statistics. a measure of the relative importance of an item in a statistical population.

12. (of clothing, textiles, etc.)

    1. relative heaviness or thickness as related to warmth or to seasonal use (often used in combination).

       a winter-weight jacket.

    2. relative heaviness or thickness as related to use.

       a bolt of coat-weight woolen cloth.

13. Printing. (of type) the degree of blackness or boldness.

14. (especially in boxing) a division or class to which a contestant belongs according to how much he weighs.

    two brothers who fight professionally in the same weight.

15. the total amount the jockey, saddle, and leads must weigh on a racehorse during a race, according to the conditions of the race.

    Jacinto has a weight of 122 pounds in the seventh race.

16. the stress or accent value given a sound, syllable, or word.

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verb (used with object)

• weights,
  present (3rd person singular)
• weighted,
  past participle,  past
• weighting
  present participle

1. to add weight to; load with additional weight.

   to weight sacks before dumping them overboard.

2. to load (fabrics, threads, etc.) with mineral or other matter to increase the weight or bulk.

3. to burden with or as if with weight (often followed bydown ).

   Financial worries have weighted that family down for years.

   Synonyms:

   load, saddle, encumber, oppress

4. Statistics. to give a statistical weight to.

5. to bias or slant toward a particular goal or direction; manipulate.

   The teacher weighted the test so students who had read both books would make the highest marks.

6. to assign (a racehorse) a specific weight to carry in a race.

   The handicapper weighted Dapper Dan with 128 pounds.

idioms

1. carry weight, to have importance or significance; influence.

   Her opinion is certain to carry weight.

2. pull one's weight, to contribute one's rightful share of work to a project or job: Also pull one's own weight.

   We will finish in time if we each pull our weight.

3. by weight, according to measurement of heaviness or mass.

   Rates are determined by weight.

4. throw one's weight around / about, to use one's power and influence, especially beyond the bounds of propriety, to secure some personal gain.

weight British  

/ weɪt /

noun

1. a measure of the heaviness of an object; the amount anything weighs

2. W. physics the vertical force experienced by a mass as a result of gravitation. It equals the mass of the body multiplied by the acceleration of free fall. Its units are units of force (such as newtons or poundals) but is often given as a mass unit (kilogram or pound)

3. a system of units used to express the weight of a substance

   troy weight

4. a unit used to measure weight

   the kilogram is the weight used in the metric system

5. any mass or heavy object used to exert pressure or weigh down

6. an oppressive force

   the weight of cares

7. any heavy load

   the bag was such a weight

8. the main or greatest force: preponderance

   the weight of evidence

9. importance, influence, or consequence

   his opinion carries weight

10. statistics one of a set of coefficients assigned to items of a frequency distribution that are analysed in order to represent the relative importance of the different items

11. printing the apparent blackness of a printed typeface

12. slang a pound of a drug, esp cannabis

13. informal to do one's full or proper share of a task

14. informal to act in an overauthoritarian or aggressive manner

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verb

1. to add weight to

2. to burden or oppress

3. to add importance, value, etc, to one side rather than another; bias; favour

   a law weighted towards landlords

4. statistics to attach a weight or weights to

5. to make (fabric, threads, etc) heavier by treating with mineral substances, etc

weight Scientific  

/ wāt /

1. The force with which an object near the Earth or another celestial body is attracted toward the center of the body by gravity. An object's weight depends on its mass and the strength of the gravitational pull. The weight of an object in an aircraft flying at high altitude is less than its weight at sea level, since the strength of gravity decreases with increasing distance from the Earth's surface. The SI unit of weight is the newton, though units of mass such as grams or kilograms are used more informally to denote the weight of some mass, understood as the force acting on it in a gravitational field with a strength of one G. The pound is also still used as a unit of weight.

2. A system of such measures, such as avoirdupois weight or troy weight.

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weight Cultural  

1. The force exerted on any object by gravity.

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weight More Idioms  

1. see by weight; carry weight; dead weight; pull one's weight; put on weight; throw one's weight around; worth one's weight in gold;

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Usage

Although most hand-held calculators can translate pounds into kilograms, an absolute conversion factor between these two units is not technically sound. A pound is a unit of force, and a kilogram is a unit of mass. When the unit pound is used to indicate the force that a gravitational field exerts on a mass, the pound is a unit of weight. Mistaking weight for mass is tantamount to confusing the electric charges on two objects with the forces of attraction (or repulsion) between them. Like charge, the mass of an object is an intrinsic property of that object: electrons have a unique mass, protons have a unique mass, and some particles, such as photons, have no mass. Weight, on the other hand, is a force due to the gravitational attraction between two bodies. For example, one's weight on the Moon is 1/6 of one's weight on Earth. Nevertheless, one's mass on the Moon is identical to one's mass on Earth. The reason that hand-held calculators can translate between units of weight and units of mass is that the majority of us use calculators on the planet Earth at sea level, where the conversion factor is constant for all practical purposes.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-weight
  noun
• weighter
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• weights
  plural

Participles

• weighting
  present
• weighted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• weight
  simple
• weights
  simple
• have weighted
  perfect
• has weighted
  perfect
• am weighting
  progressive
• are weighting
  progressive
• is weighting
  progressive
• have been weighting
  perfect progressive
• has been weighting
  perfect progressive

Past

• weighted
  simple
• had weighted
  perfect
• was weighting
  progressive
• were weighting
  progressive
• had been weighting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will weight
  simple
• will have weighted
  perfect
• will be weighting
  progressive
• will have been weighting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of weight

First recorded before 1000; Middle English (noun); Old English wiht (cognate with Dutch wicht, German Gewicht ); see weigh ¹, -th ¹

Explanation

The weight of a cat on your lap might not bother you, but the weight of your 156 pound Rottweiler? Oh boy. Weight refers to the heaviness of a person or object. In physics, weight is a precise measurement based on the force that gravity exerts on a mass. Got that? All meanings of the word weight are related to this sense of heaviness. Something that is important, like testimony at a trial or a serious conversation, can be described as having weight, even if you can't put it on a scale.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

weight weights weighted weighting

Rapid weight loss can come with a downside—people can end up injured or prone to falls if they shed significant muscle alongside fat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

A next-generation weight-loss drug from Eli Lilly LLY 0.09%increase; green up pointing triangle , when combined with Zepbound, helped people lose substantially more weight than Zepbound alone, according to a new study.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

Closely spaced pregnancies, premature births and low birth weight can follow, while young mothers struggle to breastfeed and care for their children.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Oil output buckled under the weight of the sanctions.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

People with TB often suffer from a bad cough, fatigue, weight loss, chills, fever, sweats, and chest pain.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Now, she says, it's really nice being able to hit targets and lift heavier weights.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

“I don’t know if the U.S. News weights are appropriate in identifying which schools are the best ones. There are big differences, the differences are growing substantially over time.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

And yet, the Wafles didn’t let the boys lift weights until they were 13 years old.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

He lifts weights and sometimes hits the bike paths at 5 a.m. before it gets hot.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Samantha and I shared the sofa, and Hugo lay on the carpet with a couple of forty-pound weights in his hands.

From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson

The sector table includes forward price-to-earnings ratios, which are based on September’s closing prices and consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates, weighted by market capitalization.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

Before listing the worst- and best-performing stocks for September, here is a look at how the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 have performed, along with weighted forward price-to-earnings ratios:

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

Responses for the governor’s race poll came from a weighted sample of 4,512 respondents considered likely to vote in the November election, from a larger group of 6,989 registered voters throughout California.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026

Colleen Babcock, Rightmove's head of partner marketing, says London faces additional challenges because its market is heavily weighted towards flats, and "affordability more broadly remains a key challenge".

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

A broad, brightly colored map of the coastline was spread on the master’s desk, weighted at each end by a heavy book.

From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Previously, Jarden had a zero risk weighting given negative results from the earlier Elanora and Isabella prospects.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

And with a capitalization of $5.26 trillion, Nvidia is the market’s biggest company, carrying a 7.6% weighting in the S&P 500.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

Carmakers and manufacturers of auto parts are getting battered by competition from China, but they now make up less than 2% of the Stoxx Europe 600’s weighting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Under the changes, the weighting given to the benefits brought by companies will be doubled, from 10% to 20% for contracts worth £5m or more, the Cabinet Office said.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Rowan took the map from his pack and unrolled it on the grass, weighting the corners down with stones.

From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda

Related Words

• clout
• consequence
• emphasis
• impact
• influence
• magnitude
• power
• prestige
• significance
• substance
• value