weighty
Americanadjective
-
having considerable weight; heavy; ponderous.
a weighty bundle.
- Antonyms:
- light
-
burdensome or troublesome.
the weightier cares of sovereignty.
-
important or momentous.
weighty negotiations.
- Synonyms:
- consequential, grave, serious, significant
- Antonyms:
- unimportant, light
-
having or exerting influence, power, etc.; influential.
a weighty merchant of Boston.
adjective
-
having great weight
-
important or momentous
-
causing anxiety or worry
Synonym Usage
See heavy.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of weighty
Explanation
Weighty things are either very heavy or extremely important and worrisome. Putting your weighty cat on a diet might be a weighty issue that nags at you. If your luggage is too weighty, you'll have to pay an extra fee at the airport. And if you've got a mind full of weighty problems, you won't be able to fall asleep on your long flight. Sometimes this adjective is also used to mean "influential," like the weighty influence your SAT scores might have on your chances of being accepted at a competitive college.
Vocabulary lists containing weighty
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:
This weighty destiny also explains why the Higashi villagers went out of their way to keep Yuru close.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
The Declaration is a weighty and world-altering document, but America is more complicated than a set of ideas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
He was celebrated during his lifetime for introducing a new way of painting -- depicting weighty, massive figures in three-dimensional space, while imparting his characters with a human expressiveness not seen before.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
It turns out that Artie’s estrangement from his family is grounded in concrete circumstances: Both Evie and Rob have been keeping a weighty secret from him, one that Rob will eventually disclose.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
His chest felt weighty; he did not know why he had ironed the socks, why he had not simply done the safari suit.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A couple of the disputes are a bit weightier than a question of whether someone’s yard goes to here . . . or to here.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
She’s only in the movie for about half an hour, and though her character drives the action and ends the movie in spectacular fashion, that wasn’t enough in a category flush with weightier work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
The couple are set to return to the presidential residence, but this time Mutharika's in-tray will be far weightier.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2025
Many are even less charitable in their comprehension of the burden he will inherit, which has only become weightier with time.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2024
I wasn’t going anywhere until morning, at least, and I wanted to enjoy a few more minutes with my friends unburdened by weightier things.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
The city's historically lucrative wholesale and retail trade remains one of its weightiest sectors, accounting for almost 25 percent of GDP in the first nine months of 2024.
From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026
For nearly 500 years the Court of Session has considered the thorniest and weightiest matters of the moment.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2023
Opinionpalooza, aka June, aka the end of the Supreme Court term, when the year’s weightiest opinions tend to come out.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2023
Admittedly, the lawsuit — essentially, a dispute among insurers over the bill for all that cracked fiberglass and teak — won’t be the weightiest matter heard in federal court in Seattle.
From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2023
To all the general motives for deferring her choice, the conduct of Ormond superadded the weightiest.
From Ormond, Volume III (of 3) or, The Secret Witness by Brown, Charles Brockden
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.
