word choice - Qualifying weights. Are they "higher", "bigger"?


In a mathematical context (e.g. when talking about a weighted average), how should I qualify the word weight? Which one should I use? "Greater", "higher" or "bigger"?


Examples:


"... and that can be achieved using greater weights for such instances?"


"... and that can be achieved using higher weights for such instances?"


"... and that can be achieved using bigger weights for such instances?"


Obs: I did read a similar question, but I not sure if it's answer can be applied here.



Answer



As others have said, all three are idiomatic, and there are other options as well.


Looking at the actual usage stats from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), we have this:


                       BNC      COCA      

greater weight          37      138     
heavier weight          11       40     
higher weight            3       33     
larger weight            0        5     
stronger weight          1        2     
bigger weight            0        2

So, on both sides of the pond, greater looks like the safest choice, while bigger is a very rare sight indeed.


And just for the sake of completeness:


                       BNC      COCA      

lighter weight          12      105     
lower weight             3       54     
smaller weight           2        3

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