heftier; heftiest
1
: quite heavy
2
a
: marked by bigness, bulk, and usually strength
a hefty football player
c
: impressively large : substantial
hefty portions
heftily adverb
heftiness noun

Examples of hefty in a Sentence

He was a tall, hefty man. Her boss gave her a hefty raise. a hefty dose of irony He gave the door a hefty kick.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Filled with hefty dialogue, emotional scenes and topical questions, Luca Guadagnino draws out incredible performances from Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield. Rachel Choy, Refinery29, 14 Oct. 2025 Tallinn’s Baltic Event Co-Production Market – an industry sidebar to the Black Nights Film Festival – has unveiled exclusively to Variety the strong line up of 15 European titles from 13 countries competing for the hefty €20,000 ($23,200) Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. Annika Pham, Variety, 13 Oct. 2025 Building out that much infrastructure requires a hefty amount of new energy. Jordan Novet, CNBC, 13 Oct. 2025 Redford shared in a September 26 Instagram video, under her account @linaredford, that Sinbad's weight had taken a hefty toll. Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for hefty

Word History

First Known Use

1863, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of hefty was in 1863

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Hefty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hefty. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.

Kids Definition

hefty

adjective
heftier; heftiest
heftily adverb
heftiness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on hefty

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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