sway
/ˈsweɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.65 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The old song caused a little sway in everyone in the room."
- "I doubt I'll hold much sway with someone so powerful."
- "Though both Mr. Knight and Mr. Hennessey view themselves as traders first, the “finfluencer” culture has flourished with the surge in online interest, and they have considerable sway."
- "[…] the slowly dawning realisation that, as the billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz put it, they have “no sway” over what they unleashed."
- "Prospero:[…]Confederates / (ſo drie he was for Sway) with King of Naples / To giue him Annuall tribute, doe him homage / Subiect his Coronet, to his Crowne and bend / The Dukedom yet vnbow'd (alas poore Millaine) / To moſt ignoble ſtooping."
- "Prayuth's return as prime minister takes Thailand back to 1980s. Military still holds sway in a democracy that has yet to mature."
Etymology
From earlier swey (“to fall, swoon”), from Middle English sweyen, from Old English *swǣġan (“to bend, bow”), from Proto-West Germanic *swaigijan, from Proto-Germanic *swaigijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sweh₁- See also Saterland Frisian swooie (“to swing, wave, wobble”); also Lithuanian svai̇̃gti (“to become giddy or dizzy”), the second element of Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌-𐬱𐬑𐬎𐬀𐬑𐬙𐬀 (paⁱri-šxuaxta, “to surround”), Sanskrit स्वजते (svájate, “he embraces, enfolds”). The noun derived from the verb.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sweyen, *swǣġan, *swaigijan, *swaigijaną, *sweh₁-, svieia
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsweɪ̯/
- British English: /ˈsweɪ̯/