weighted

adjective weight·ed \ ˈwā-təd \

|Updated on: 30 Jul 2018

Examples: weighted in a Sentence

Definition of weighted

1 : made heavy : loaded

weighted silk

2 a : having a statistical weight attached

a weighted test score

b : compiled or calculated from weighted data

a weighted mean

3 : inclined 1

See weighted defined for English-language learners

Examples of weighted in a Sentence

The head of the golf club was weighted.

Recent Examples of weighted from the Web

Ledesma received 45 percent of a weighted poll that included the USL Technical Committee, a national panel of independent media representing every USL market and an online fan vote held at USLSoccer.com.

— patrick brennan, Cincinnati.com, "FC Cincinnati's Emmanuel Ledesma named USL Player of the Month for June," 12 July 2018
Hula Hoop Fitness Class Adults can join trainer Connie Mullen and learn how to be fit by using a weighted hula hoop.

— mary lou cruz, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Boynton Beach area events July 18-28," 13 July 2018
These four categories were broken down into a total of 29 sub-metrics—number of car thefts and the cost of gas, for example—each of which had a weighted value.

— sarah gray, Fortune, "These Are the 10 Worst Cities for Driving in 2018," 12 July 2018
The court is generally considered the second most important, but its docket is idiosyncratic and heavily weighted toward administrative law, which can be extraordinarily complex.

— adam liptak, New York Times, "Brett Kavanaugh, a Conservative Stalwart in Political Fights and on the Bench," 9 July 2018
Permits are distributed by weighted lottery conducted by the National Park Service.

— scott craven, azcentral, "Lees Ferry: Gateway to Grand Canyon rafting and the Colorado River," 9 July 2018
In the long run, cost of capital arguably includes ESG issues more than weighted average cost of capital.

— WSJ, "Value Investing Is a Long-Term Commitment," 8 July 2018
In truth, that’s rarely – if ever – the case, with the burden of expectation more often serving as a weighted jacket.

— martin rogers, USA TODAY, "With champion Germany out, who's the World Cup 'favorite' now?," 27 June 2018
All that’s left now are two physical tests – a broad jump, and a granny-throw with a weighted medicine ball – and we’re done.

— gregg doyel, Indianapolis Star, "Doyel: USA Luge's search for next great Winter Olympian visits Indianapolis," 28 June 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.

First Known Use of weighted

1597

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Financial Definition of WEIGHTED

weighted

adjective

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