heft
/hɛft/noun, verb
heft is spelled H-E-F-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, heft means “The feel of the weight of something; heaviness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of heft is hefts.
How many letters and syllables are in heft?
| Letters | 4: H-E-F-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 39,336th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 heft?
Heft appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th 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 heft?
- US /hɛft/
- Australia /heft/
Heft has one syllable (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-heft.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with heft?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as heft from its last stressed vowel (/ɛft/):
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 heft
- hefts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- haft
- hefting participle, present
- hefted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does heft mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The feel of the weight of something; heaviness.
A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft.
- 2
USThe force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
- 3
Graveness, seriousness; gravity.
- 4
Importance, influence; weight.
- 5
USdatedinformalThe greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
- 6
UKAn act of lifting; a lift.
- 7
obsoleteAn act of heaving (lifting with difficulty); an instance of violent exertion or straining.
- 8
ScotlandUKUSinformalA piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to.
- 9
ScotlandUKUSinformalA flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland.
- 10
ScotlandUKUSinformalA number of sheets of paper fastened together, as to form a book or a notebook.
- 11
ScotlandUKUSinformalA part of a serial publication; a fascicle, an issue, a number.
verb
- 1
UKUSinformalTo lift or lift up (something, especially a heavy object).
He hefted the sack of concrete into the truck.
- 2
UKUSinformalTo test the weight of (something) by lifting.
- 3
UKUSinformalTo evaluate or test (someone or something).
- 4
UKUSinformalTo have (substantial) weight; to weigh.
- 5
ScotlandUKUSinformalTo accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of pastureland.
- 6
ScotlandUKUSinformalTo establish or settle (someone) in an occupation or place of residence.
- 7
ScotlandUKUSinformalTo establish or plant (something) firmly in a place; to fix, to root, to settle.
- 8
ScotlandUKUSinformalOf a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place.
- 9
ScotlandUKUSinformalTo cause (milk) to be held in a cow's udder until the latter becomes hard and swollen, either by not milking the cow or by stopping up the teats, to make the cow look healthy; also, to cause (a cow) to have an udder in this condition.
- 10
ScotlandUKUSinformalTo cause (urine) to be held in a person's bladder.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Heft in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 heft come from?
The noun is derived from Late Middle English heft (“heaviness; something heavy, a weight”), from heven (“to lift, raise”) + -th (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc., forming nouns), by analogy with the development of weft from weven (modern English weave), etc. (also compare words like cleft from cleave, and theft from thieve, where the development occurred in Old English or earlier languages). The English word is analysable as heave + -t (suffix forming nouns from verbs). The verb is probably derived from the noun.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).