swim
/swɪm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.21 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
Intransitive verb
verb
To become immersed in, or as if in, or flooded with, or as if with, a liquid.
Intransitive verb
verb
To traverse (a specific body of water, or a specific distance) by swimming; or, to use a specific swimming stroke; or, to compete in a specific swimming event.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "We were now all upon a Level, as to our travelling; being unshipp’d, for our Bark would swim no farther, and she was too heavy to carry on our Backs […]"
- "He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site."
- "Meanwhile, NR faced an unexpected challenge when a night watchman spotted several Koi Carp swimming in floodwater close to the railway, after they had escaped from a nearby private residence. Wilson says the owner was eventually traced, and the fish were safely returned "after enjoying swimming around in a 3,000-acre lake"."
- "swimming in self-pity"
- "a bare few bits of meat swimming in watery sauce"
- "A fam'd Sur-tout he wears, which once was blue, And his foot swims in a capacious shoe."
Etymology
From Middle English swymmen, from Old English swimman (“to swim, float”) (class III strong verb; past tense swamm, past participle geswummen), from Proto-West Germanic *swimman, from Proto-Germanic *swimmaną (“to swim”), from Proto-Indo-European *swem(bʰ)- (“to be unsteady, move, swim”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian sweem, swome, swume, swumi, swumme, swääm (“to swim”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian swimme (“to swim”), Dutch zwemmen (“to swim”), German schwimmen (“to swim”), Limburgish schwämme, zwömme (“to swim”), Low German swimmen (“to swim”), Luxembourgish schwammen (“to swim”), Vilamovian švymma, śwyma, śwymma (“to swim”), Yiddish שווימען (shvimen, “to swim”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål svømme (“to swim”), Faroese svimja (“to swim”), Norn suma (“to swim”), Norwegian Nynorsk svemja, svemje, svømma, svømme, symja, symje (“to swim”), Swedish simma (“to swim”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /swɪm/
- British English: /swɪm/
Usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- Archaic
- British usage
Inflected Forms
swims (present, singular)
swimming (participle, present)
swam (past)
swum (archaic, past)
swum (participle, past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
swam (first person, past)
swum (archaic, first person)
swam (past, second person)
swammest (archaic, past)
swam (past, singular)