weightiest

Weightiest is the superlative form of weighty, used to indicate the greatest weight or the greatest significance within a given context. In common usage, weighty can refer either to physical heaviness or to seriousness and importance, and weightiest marks the highest degree of that attribute in a group or situation. For example, a weightiest issue is one regarded as the most consequential among several topics, while the weightiest object in a collection is the one with the greatest mass.

In physics, weight is the force exerted by gravity on a mass. Because weight depends on gravity, and because mass is a more fundamental property, the term weightiest is less frequently used in technical contexts than heaviest or most massive. In everyday language, weightiest often emphasizes importance or gravity in a rhetorical sense rather than precise measurements.

Etymology and form: weighty comes from weight with the adjectival suffix -y, and its superlative form is weightiest, formed with the superlative suffix -iest. The word is widely accepted in formal and informal English and can carry nuance ranging from physical heft to moral or intellectual gravity.

Usage notes: prefer heaviest when describing physical mass, and weighty or weightiest when stressing significance. Synonyms for the figurative sense include gravest, most substantial, or most consequential.