Which term describes the physical force exerted on an object due to gravity?

The term that describes the physical force exerted on an object due to gravity is weight. Weight is a measure of the gravitational pull that the Earth (or another celestial body) exerts on an object's mass. This force is dependent not only on the mass of the object but also on the strength of the gravitational field acting on it.

For example, an object with a greater mass will experience a greater weight if placed in the same gravitational field. On Earth, the standard gravitational acceleration is approximately 9.81 m/s², which means that an object's weight can be calculated by multiplying its mass by this gravitational acceleration.

In contrast, terms like density, mass, and volume describe different properties of materials. Density refers to the mass per unit volume of a substance, mass is the measure of the amount of matter in an object without regard to gravity, and volume is the amount of space that an object occupies. These concepts are related but distinct from weight, which specifically relates to the gravitational force acting on an object.