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say it: HEV-ee
heavy is an adjective, noun and adverb meaning "of comparatively great physical weight or density". It is pronounced /ˈhɛvi/ — HEV-ee. It carries 30 recorded senses.
of comparatively great physical weight or density
“a heavy load”
“lead is a heavy metal”
“heavy mahogany furniture”
of the military or industry; using (or being) the heaviest and most powerful armaments or weapons or equipment
“heavy artillery”
“heavy infantry”
“a heavy cruiser”
“heavy guns”
“heavy industry involves large-scale production of basic products (such as steel) used by other industries”
marked by great psychological weight; weighted down especially with sadness or troubles or weariness
“a heavy heart”
“a heavy schedule”
“heavy news”
“a heavy silence”
“heavy eyelids”
usually describes a large person who is fat but has a large frame to carry it
(physics, chemistry) being or containing an isotope with greater than average atomic mass or weight
“heavy hydrogen”
“heavy water”
chemistry
(of an actor or role) being or playing the villain
“Iago is the heavy role in `Othello'”
permitting little if any light to pass through because of denseness of matter
“dense smoke”
“heavy fog”
“impenetrable gloom”
given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
“a hard drinker”
slow and laborious because of weight
“the heavy tread of tired troops”
“moved with a lumbering sag-bellied trot”
“ponderous prehistoric beasts”
“a ponderous yawn”
large and powerful; especially designed for heavy loads or rough work
“a heavy truck”
“heavy machinery”
dense or inadequately leavened and hence likely to cause distress in the alimentary canal
“a heavy pudding”
full of; bearing great weight
“trees heavy with fruit”
“vines weighed down with grapes”
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
“worked their arduous way up the mining valley”
“a grueling campaign”
“hard labor”
“heavy work”
“heavy going”
“spent many laborious hours on the project”
“set a punishing pace”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for heavy come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.