Outweigh

How to spell outweigh

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce outweigh

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does outweigh mean?

1. verbTo be greater than something else in value, importance, or weight.

Outweigh in a sentence

• The benefits of the new contract clearly outweigh the risks.

• For most buyers the long-term savings outweigh the higher upfront cost.

Where does outweigh come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a compound built entirely from native English material, joining the prefix out-, meaning 'beyond' or 'more than', to the verb weigh. Weigh descends from the Old English wegan, which originally meant 'to carry, bear, or move' and only later narrowed to the modern sense of measuring heaviness on a balance; the same ancient root also gave us 'wain' (a cart) and 'weight'. By the time the prefix out- attached itself, it carried the productive sense of surpassing or exceeding, the same force seen in 'outlast', 'outnumber', and 'outrun'. The combined verb appears in English from roughly the sixteenth century, first in the literal sense of being heavier on the scales and then quickly in the figurative sense of one consideration counting for more than another. The spelling trap is gentle but real: the 'eigh' cluster spells a long 'ay' sound with a silent 'gh', a leftover of a guttural consonant that English stopped pronouncing centuries ago.

How the word is built

• out- (beyond, more than)
• weigh (from Old English wegan: to carry, balance, weigh)