sweet
/swit/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.91 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of a pleasing disposition.
adj
Of a helpful disposition.
Example Sentences
- "a sweet apple"
- "A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades."
- "Sweet wines are better dessert wines."
- "sweet butter"
- "a sweet scent"
- "Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me, / I will give them all back again."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂d- Proto-Indo-European *-us Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus Proto-Germanic *swōtuz Proto-Indo-European *-yos Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *-jaz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *swōtī Old English swēte Middle English swete English sweet From Middle English soot, sweete, swete, swoote, from Old English swēte, swoete, swōt, swœ̄te (“sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōtī, from Proto-Germanic *swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (“sweet”), from *sweh₂d- (“sweet”) + *-us. Cognates Cognate with Yola sweet (“sweet”), Saterland Frisian swäit (“sweet”), West Frisian swiet (“sweet”), Alemannic German süeß (“sweet”), Bavarian siaß (“sweet; cute”), Central Franconian söß (“sweet”), Dutch zoet (“sweet”), German süss, süß (“sweet; cute”), Limburgish söüt (“sweet; cute”), Low German seut, sööt (“sweet”), Luxembourgish séiss (“sweet”), Vilamovian ziss (“sweet”), Yiddish זיס (zis, “sweet; cute”), Danish sød (“sweet; cute, pretty”), Faroese søtur (“sweet”), Icelandic sætur (“sweet; cute, pretty”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk søt (“sweet; cute”), Swedish söt (“sweet; cute”); also Latin suāvis (“delicious, pleasant, sweet”), Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús, “sweet; pleasant; glad, pleased”), Albanian shije (“flavour, taste”), Lithuanian sūdyti (“to add salt; to brine, souse”), Armenian քաղցր (kʻaġcʻr, “sweet”), Tocharian A swār (“sweet”), Tocharian B swāre (“sweet, tender”), Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú, “delicious, palatable, savoury, sweet, tasty; dainty, delicate”). Doublet of suave.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /swit/
- British English: /swiːt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
sweeter (comparative)
sweetest (superlative)
sweete (alternative, obsolete)
more sweet (comparative)
most sweet (superlative)
sweets (plural)
sweets (present, singular)
sweeting (participle, present)
sweeted (participle, past)
sweeted (past)