heavy metal

English

Etymology

The origin of the music genre sense is often disputed; it was used by William S. Burroughs in Soft Machine and Nova Express and various music critics claim to have coined it: Sandy Pearlman, Lester Bangs and Mike Saunders.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛv.i ˌmɛt.əl/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

heavy metal (countable and uncountable, plural heavy metals)

1. (sciences, countable) Any metal that has a specific gravity greater than about 5, especially one, such as lead, that is poisonous and may be a hazard in the environment. (There are many different definitions of what counts as a heavy metal; see Heavy metals for a discussion.)
2. (music, uncountable) A genre descended from rock music, characterized by the use of emphatic drumbeats, highly amplified distortion, and overall loudness; often featuring extended instrumental solos and powerful vocals.

   Synonym: metal

3. (uncountable) guns or shot of large size.
4. (uncountable, figurative) Great influence or power.

Hyponyms

• (genre of music):

• alternative metal
• blackgaze
• black metal
• Celtic metal
• Christian metal
• deathcore
• death metal
• djent
• doom metal
• drone metal
• electronicore
• extreme metal
• folk metal
• funeral doom
• funk metal
• glam metal
• gothic metal
• grindcore
• groove metal
• industrial metal
• kawaii metal
• mathcore
• melodic metal
• metalcore
• neoclassical metal
• nu metal
• pagan metal
• pirate metal
• post-metal
• power metal
• progressive metal
• sludge metal
• speed metal
• stoner metal
• symphonic metal
• thrash metal
• Viking metal

 

Derived terms

• heavy metal umlaut

Translations

type of metal

• Catalan: metall pesant m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 重金屬／重金属 (zh) (zhòngjīnshǔ)

• Danish: tungmetal n
• Esperanto: pezmetalo
• Finnish: raskasmetalli (fi)
• French: métal lourd (fr) m
• Galician: metal pesado m
• German: Schwermetall (de) n
• Greenlandic: aatsitassaq oqimaatsoq
• Hungarian: nehézfém (hu)
• Italian: metallo pesante (it) m
• Japanese: 重金属 (じゅうきんぞく, jūkinzoku)
• Khmer: លោហធាតុធ្ងន់ (loohthiətotngŭən)
• Korean: 중금속(重金屬) (ko) (junggeumsok)
• Malay: logam berat
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tungmetall n

  Nynorsk: tungmetall n

• Portuguese: metal pesado m
• Romanian: metal greu n
• Russian: тяжёлый мета́лл m (tjažólyj metáll)
• Scots: hivy metal, heivy metal
• Spanish: metal pesado m
• Swedish: tungmetall (sv) c
• Thai: โลหะหนัก (th)
• Turkish: ağır metal (tr)

genre of music

• Arabic: مُوسِيقَى الْمِيتَال f (mūsīqā l-mītāl), هيفي ميتال m (hīfī mītāl)
• Belarusian: хэ́ві-мэ́тал m (xévi-métal)
• Bulgarian: хе́ви ме́тъл m (hévi métǎl)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 重金屬音樂／重金属音乐 (zhòngjīnshǔ yīnyuè)

• Dutch: heavy metal (nl) m
• Esperanto: metalroko
• Finnish: heavy metal (fi), hevi (fi)
• French: heavy metal (fr) m
• Galician: heavy metal (gl), metal (gl) m
• Georgian: მძიმე მეტალი (mʒime meṭali)
• German: Heavy Metal (de) m, Metal (de) m
• Hebrew: הבי מטאל
• Hungarian: heavy metal (hu)
• Italian: heavy metal (it) m
• Japanese: ヘヴィメタル (hevimetaru), ヘビーメタル (hebīmetaru), ヘビメタ (hebimeta), メタル (metaru)
• Korean: 헤비 메탈 (hebi metal)
• Marathi: हेव्ही मेटल n (hevhī meṭal)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: هِوی مِتال (hevi metâl)

• Polish: heavy metal (pl) m
• Portuguese: heavy metal (pt) m, metal (pt) m
• Russian: хе́ви-ме́тал (ru) m (xɛ́vi-mɛ́tal), (музыка) мета́лл (ru) m (metáll)
• Scots: heavy metal, hivy metal, heivy metal
• Spanish: rock pesado m, heavy metal m
• Swedish: heavy metal (sv) c, hårdrock (sv) c
• Thai: เฮฟวีเมทัล
• Ukrainian: хе́ві-ме́тал m (xévi-métal)

See also

• acid rock

Further reading

Wikiquote

• Heavy metals on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Heavy metal music on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɦɛ.vi ˈmɛ.təl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hea‧vy me‧tal

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

1. (music) heavy metal

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

1. (music) heavy metal

   Synonym: metal

Related terms

• metallaro

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tal/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtal

Noun

heavy metal m inan (related adjective heavymetalowy)

1. heavy metal (style of music)

Declension

Declension of heavy metal

	singular
nominative	heavy metal
genitive	heavy metalu
dative	heavy metalowi
accusative	heavy metal
instrumental	heavy metalem
locative	heavy metalu
vocative	heavy metalu

Derived terms

noun

• heavymetalowiec

 

Related terms

adverb

• heavymetalowo

 

Further reading

• heavy metal I in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• heavy metal II in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• heavy metal in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taw/ [ˈhɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taw/ [ˈhɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taw/ [ˈχɛ.vi ˈmɛ.taʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tɐl/ [ˈɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tɐɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tɐl/ [ˈɛ.vi ˈmɛ.tɐɫ]
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.bi ˈmɛ.tɐl/ [ˈɛ.βi ˈmɛ.tɐɫ]

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

1. (music) heavy metal (genre of rock music)

   Synonyms: metal, (Brazil, dated) rock pauleira

Related terms

• metaleiro

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Noun

heavy metal n (uncountable)

1. heavy metal

Declension

declension of heavy metal (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) heavy metal	heavy metalul
genitive/dative	(unui) heavy metal	heavy metalului
vocative	heavy metalule

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌxebi meˈtal/ [ˌxe.β̞i meˈt̪al]

Noun

heavy metal m (uncountable)

1. heavy metal (genre of music)

   Synonym: rock pesado

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “heavy metal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heavy metal.

Noun

heavy metal c

1. (music) heavy metal

   Synonym: hårdrock

References

• heavy metal in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• heavy metal in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)