heft
/hɛft/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.75 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The force exerted by an object due to gravitation; weight.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
The greater part of something; the bulk, the mass.
American usage; Countable; Dated; Informal; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "A high quality hammer should have good balance and heft."
- "But Durindan at laſt fell vvith ſuch heft, / Full on the circle of Rogeros ſhield, / That halfe vvay through the Argent byrd it cleft, / And pierſt the core of male [i.e., mail] that vvas vvithin, / And found a paſſage to the verie skin."
- "I pictured him doing violence to his better nature, and only wanting a good heft of circumstance to enable him to throw off his load of deviltry."
- "Unlike most moons of the solar system, ours has the heft to pull itself into a sphere."
- "The skull [of a Hubbs' beaked whale] was an awkward armload. Bizarrely, its size, shape, and long, narrow bill brought to mind the head of Big Bird from Sesame Street, but with none of bird-bone's lightness: It had heft and density."
- "The man had been carried out of the yard while the fire was still burning; […] Public opinion was much divided, some holding that it would go hard with a man of his age and heft; but the common belief seemed to be that he was of that sort "as'd take a deal o'killin'," and that he would be none the worse for such a fall as that."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hɛft/
- British English: /hɛft/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Dated
- Informal
- British usage
- Obsolete
- Transitive verb