causing weariness, restlessness, or lack of interest
the study of history doesn't have to be all about dull heavy reading and the memorization of dates
How does the adjective heavy differ from other similar words?
Some common synonyms of heavy are cumbersome, cumbrous, ponderous, and weighty. While all these words mean "having great weight," heavy implies that something has greater density or thickness than the average of its kind or class.
a heavy child for his age
How are the words cumbrous and cumbersome related as synonyms of heavy?
Both cumbrous and cumbersome imply heaviness and bulkiness that make for difficulty in grasping, moving, carrying, or manipulating.
wrestled with the cumbrous furniture
early cameras were cumbersome and inconvenient
When could ponderous be used to replace heavy?
The meanings of ponderous and heavy largely overlap; however, ponderous implies having great weight because of size and massiveness with resulting great inertia.
ponderous elephants in a circus parade
Where would weighty be a reasonable alternative to heavy?
In some situations, the words weighty and heavy are roughly equivalent. However, weighty suggests having actual and not just relative weight.
a load of weighty boxes
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of heavy
Adjective
Apple shares rose but tech stocks and overall markets mostly ended in the red after a worse-than-expected September inflation reading sparked fears of higher interest rates that hit debt-heavy companies particularly hard.—
Dade Hayes,
Deadline,
14 Oct. 2026 As for the crack, well, that happened by accident when heavy equipment punched through a concrete wall and unintentionally punctured the sphere, company officials told The Mountaineer.—
Mark Price,
Charlotte Observer,
14 Oct. 2026
Noun
Trapped together in the heavy, stifling isolation of the summer heat, the siblings’ bond begins to shift into something unsettling and difficult to define.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
14 Sep. 2026 Mehring’s characters include petty criminals, unscrupulous lawyers, Galician Jews, Freikorps heavies, local and international businessmen, Prussian generals, and the everyday citizens inhabiting the streets of Berlin’s old and rather dingy center.—Literary Hub,
9 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for heavy
On winding roads, its model-specific suspension tuning and focus on weight reduction translate into exceptional body control at speed without becoming brittle or overly rigid in slower, more technical sections.
—
Bradley Iger,
Robb Report,
16 Oct. 2026
In particular, he was asked about Netflix’s slower growth (2% year-over-year growth in user engagement during the first half in 2026).
And now those still left in the battered city along Ukraine's southeastern front face death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms, with no agreement in sight for even a humanitarian evacuation.
—
ABC News,
ABC News,
17 Oct. 2026
Despite low winds and little rain, harsh surf continues to wreak havoc along Southern California's coastal communities.
Atrium is also offering day hospital programs in which patients receive intensive treatment and return home at night.
—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
15 Oct. 2026
Because schools would otherwise use that money to buy equipment, the proposal would most affect two-year technical schools with equipment-intensive programs like welding or automotive programs.
The subject is of particular interest at CBS News, where Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has repeatedly encouraged the network’s journalists to dedicate serious resources to finding a potential link.
—
semafor.com,
semafor.com,
19 Oct. 2026
Illinois Republicans are angry that the congressional map is deliberately drawn to their serious disadvantage, with some districts almost comically gerrymandered.
The problem, Snegovaya said, is that achieving military autonomy for Europe and Ukraine is extremely difficult in the short term, and Europe has been slow to develop the necessary capabilities.
—
Elsa Ohlen,
CNBC,
17 Oct. 2026
Past changes have pushed the glacier into a retreat that may be difficult to reverse, while new modeling suggests scientists may have underestimated how warm seawater reaches beneath it.
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