weighted

adjective

weight·ed | \ ˈwā-təd

Definition of weighted

1 : made heavy : loaded weighted silk

2a : having a statistical weight attached a weighted test score

b : compiled or calculated from weighted data a weighted mean

3 : inclined sense 1

Examples of weighted in a Sentence

The head of the golf club was weighted.

Recent Examples on the Web

Compared to cotton or silk, linen has heft—a Once Milano linen quilt might be a good replacement for this year’s popular weighted blankets, which are said to help with anxiety and increase levels of serotonin. — Carmen Rosy Hall, Vogue, "Why Linen Sheets Are Worth Keeping on Through Winter," 21 Dec. 2018 Like any neurons, these take a weighted average of their inputs and then apply an activation function. — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, "How computers got shockingly good at recognizing images," 18 Dec. 2018 For those who suffer from anxiety, weighted blankets can be a saving grace. — Jennifer Aldrich, Country Living, "This Crazy Popular Weighted Blanket for Dogs Is Almost Sold Out on Amazon," 4 Dec. 2018 With the carbon-fiber wheels fitted, the steering is very light on-center, and feedback from the otherwise perfectly weighted electrohydraulic steering is amplified. — Marc Urbano, Car and Driver, "Lightning Lap 11.5: We Lap the Ford GT at VIR!," 22 Jan. 2018 Jones now lives with his family in Truckee, on the California side of Lake Tahoe, and spends long days hiking with a weighted pack, training for uncharted slopes in the backcountry of the Sierra Nevada. — Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker, "Dude, Where’s the Snow?," 20 Nov. 2017 The typical birdbath consists of a bowl that sits on a weighted pedestal to prevent tipping over. — Kirk Sides, Houston Chronicle, "Birdbaths offer cool dip and sip in summer heat," 5 June 2018 Among the largest weighted stocks in the Dow are UnitedHealth, Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, and Apple. — Jon Chesto, BostonGlobe.com, "GE is dropped from Dow Jones industrial average," 19 June 2018 Each group draws for priority with a weighted system (similar to the NBA draft lottery). — Nat Newell, Indianapolis Star, "Colts could make a selection in NFL supplemental draft," 9 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'weighted.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

6 Feb 2019

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The first known use of weighted was in 1597

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More Definitions for weighted

weighted

adjective

Financial Definition of weighted

What It Is

Weighted refers to the mathematical practice of adjusting the components of an index to reflect the importance of certain characteristics.

How It Works

Here is information about five stocks.

If we wanted to create an unweighted index of the price performance of these five companies, we might average their stock prices and call it a day (i.e., we would calculate the average as $8.60).

However, this unweighted average doesn’t take into account the issuers’ actual sizes or the number of shares outstanding (in other words, without reflecting the issuers’ true heft in the economy). The tiny companies can sway the index as much as the more significant companies. Accordingly, if one of the higher-priced stocks (Company D, in our example) has a huge price increase, the index is more likely to increase even if the other, more meaningful companies in the index decline in value at the same time.

Thus, we could create a weighted index to give more weight to the bigger issuers. We could do this by multiplying the share price by the shares outstanding, summing the totals, and then dividing by the total shares outstanding:

Why It Matters

In the finance world, some indexes are weighted and some are not. It is important to understand how indexes are weighted so that you can understand what influences those indexes, what the index really conveys, and whether the index is relevant to your investment objectives.

Source: Investing Answers

weighted

adjective