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PlainSpell

heavy

/ˈhɛv.i/adjective, adverb, noun, verb

heavy is spelled H-E-A-V-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 91 times per million words in written English, the 1,167th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, heavy means “Having great weight” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in heavy?

Letters5: H-E-A-V-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing91 times per million words; the 1,167th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is heavy?

Heavy appears 91 times per million words in written English, the 1,167th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce heavy?

  • US /ˈhɛv.i/
  • Australia /ˈhev.i/

As an adjective (“Having the heaves”): /ˈhiːvi/.

Heavy has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-heavy.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_heavy.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-heavy2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with heavy?

3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as heavy from its last stressed vowel (/ɛvi/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of heavy

  • heavier comparative
  • heaviest superlative
  • more heavy comparative
  • most heavy superlative
  • heavies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • heavys plural
  • heavying participle, present
  • heavied participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does heavy mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Having great weight.

    Can you help me carry this? It's really heavy.

  2. 2

    Heavyset: overweight.

    When he was a child he was rather heavy, but today he is impressively fit.

  3. 3

    Serious, somber.

  4. 4

    Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive.

    heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.

  5. 5

    UKdatedslangGood.

    This film is heavy.

  6. 6

    USdatedProfound.

    The Moody Blues are, like, heavy.

  7. 7

    High, great.

  8. 8

    slangArmed.

    Come heavy, or not at all.

  9. 9

    Having the heaves.

    a heavy horse

adverb

  1. 1

    In a heavy manner; weightily; heavily; gravely.

    Heavy-laden with their sins, time hung heavy

  2. 2

    colloquialnonstandardTo a great degree; greatly.

  3. 3

    Indiacolloquialvery

noun

  1. 1

    slangA villain or bad guy; the one responsible for evil or aggressive acts.

    With his wrinkled, uneven face, the actor always seemed to play the heavy in films.

  2. 2

    slangA doorman, bouncer or bodyguard.

    A fight started outside the bar but the heavies came out and stopped it.

  3. 3

    A prominent figure; a "major player".

  4. 4

    slangA newspaper of the quality press.

  5. 5

    A relatively large multi-engined aircraft.

  6. 6

    archaicslangA serious theatrical role.

  7. 7

    A member of the heavy cavalry.

verb

  1. 1

    To make heavier.

    They piled their goods on the donkey's back, heavying up an already backbreaking load.

  2. 2

    To sadden.

  3. 3

    AustraliainformalTo use power or wealth to exert influence on, e.g., governments or corporations; to pressure.

    The union was well known for the methods it used to heavy many businesses.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate heavy?

Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of heavy: LCH, LSH, hvy.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Heavy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchlourd, pesant (having great weight), grave (serious)
Germanschwer (having great weight), ernst, dunkel, finster (serious), stark (slang: good)
Portuguesepesado (having great weight), grave (serious), mormacento (of weather:hot and humid), sério (of a person: doing the specified activity more…), malvado (bad guy)
Spanishpesado, onusto (having great weight)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does heavy come from?

From Middle English hevy, heviȝ, from Old English hefiġ, hefeġ, hæfiġ (“heavy; important, grave, severe, serious; oppressive, grievous; slow, dull”), from Proto-West Germanic *habīg (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Germanic *habīgaz (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to take, grasp, hold”). Equivalent to heave + -y. Related to have.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after heavy