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Which of these is a traditional unit of weight or mass?

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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

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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

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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

"You never think anything's going to happen to you. But we all do things because we want to lose weight," she said.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2026

Initially, she was pleased with the results, saying she lost a "drastic amount" of weight within weeks.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2026

During his early years in power, Kim leaned heavily on the legitimacy of his grandfather, evoking the founder’s image by cropping his hair, packing on considerable weight and wearing Mao-style suits.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2026

Although age, excess body weight, and lifestyle habits are known to influence testosterone levels, scientists have conducted relatively little research into how diet, especially protein consumption, might be associated with this hormone.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2026

She tensed, as though the weight of every soul in Deadwood had fallen on her shoulders.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

The agency weighted expenditure reports to cover the missing spending, and for one index it will create October weights as a copy of September weights.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 11, 2026

I find it very sad, so I probably get a weekly walk in now, but I like to do my weights.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Publicans serve it in pints—a system of weights and measures, then, much like that in the unseen foreign parts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

His boss's Instagram page now features videos of the former prime minister lifting weights to rap music, or chatting with Shalev in the street.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

“What would you do to burn up all that energy you use to run around the golf course every day, lift weights, and train for three hours? You’d be going stir crazy.”

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei -- which are heavily weighted with AI-linked tech giants -- led the advances.

From Barron's ● Nov. 9, 2026

Bottom trawling involves dragging weighted nets along the seabed to catch fish, although it can harm underwater vegetation.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

The strategists’ analysis of Treasury holdings data and portfolio weighted average maturity metrics suggests that “there has been a retrenchment in demand for long-dated Treasurys,” they said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

But regardless of the reason, the upshot was that even as the market-cap weighted S&P 500 fell sharply, the majority of equities within it rose, with the advancers beating decliners by 173.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026

Back at the bridge, I wrung out our wet clothes and towels, and weighted them down with stones to dry in the sun.

From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman

Using a statistical method called Bayesian weighting, the researchers assigned greater importance to models that more closely matched the historical evidence.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026

For the S&P 500 to deliver returns on par with its historical performance, tech stocks — which carry a weighting in the index of just under 40% — will likely need to participate.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 25, 2026

The ETF’s biggest sector exposure is to financials, with a weighting of 38.3% as recently as Friday, according to fund data on BlackRock’s website.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

That’s no accident because keeping an equal weighting forces an index to favor smaller, cheaper stocks—two factors known to boost long-run returns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

It was barely light outside, but the spring humidity had already seeped into their shack, weighting down their clothes.

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson

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