Word.ws English Dictionary

groundswell

groundswell noun: a broad undulation of the open ocean, often as the result of a distant disturbance.

Noun

groundswell (plural groundswells)

  1. A broad undulation of the open ocean, often as the result of a distant disturbance.
  2. (broadly) A broadly-based shifting of public opinion.
    • An astonishing groundswell of support for the new Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama, is threatening to sweep Hillary Clinton away in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary election of the 2008 presidential contest tomorrow.2008 January 7, Ewen MacAskill, “Groundswell for Obama leaves Clinton campaign on the rack”, in The Guardian
    • The 1987 book British Piers was written at a time when Britain's seaside resorts were perhaps at their lowest ebb, with a groundswell of support for rejuvenation and conservation just beginning.2020 July 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railways that reach out over the waves”, in Rail, page 51

groundswell meaning in Urdu

groundswell in Urdu

ساحلی چھل

Examples of groundswell in a sentence

  • The public’s endorsement of the war lacks the patriotic groundswell that greeted the annexation of Crimea in 2014.2022 April 1, Anton Troianovski, Ivan Nechepurenko, Valeriya Safronova, “Shaken at First, Many Russians Now Rally Behind Putin’s Invasion”...
  • Investments in research, deployment and scaling existing technologies are the initial ripples that will have to build to a groundswell of further action.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian:

Forms of groundswell

pluralgroundswells
alternative formground swell

Origin of groundswell

From ground + swell.

Questions about groundswell

What does groundswell mean?
Groundswell means a broad undulation of the open ocean, often as the result of a distant disturbance.
What is groundswell in Urdu?
Groundswell in Urdu is ساحلی چھل. See Groundswell meaning in Urdu.
How do you use groundswell in a sentence?
The public’s endorsement of the war lacks the patriotic groundswell that greeted the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
What part of speech is groundswell?
Groundswell is a noun.
What is the plural of groundswell?
The plural of groundswell is groundswells.

Words near groundswell in the dictionary

  1. groundstops
  2. groundstreak
  3. groundstroke
  4. groundstrokes
  5. groundstroking
  6. groundswell
  7. groundswells
  8. groundswoman
  9. groundswomen
  10. groundtrack
  11. groundtracks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: groundswell (page history and authors); groundswell (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “groundswell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/groundswell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.