heavy metal

1. 1.

   a metal of relatively high density (specific gravity greater than about 5) or of high relative atomic weight (especially one that is poisonous like mercury or lead)

   Broadermetallic elementalloy
2. 2.

   loud and harsh sounding rock music with a strong beat; lyrics usually involve violent or fantastic imagery

   Synonymsheavy metal music

   Broaderrock 'n' roll

Questions about heavy metal

What does heavy metal mean?

heavy metal means "a metal of relatively high density (specific gravity greater than about 5) or of high relative atomic weight (especially one that is poisonous like mercury or lead)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for heavy metal?

Close synonyms include heavy metal music. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is heavy metal a common word?

heavy metal is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.