swan

UK/swɒn//swɑn/

swan noun: any of various species of large, long-necked waterfowl, of genus Cygnus (bird family: Anatidae), most of which have white plumage.

Image: Marek Szczepanek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

swan (plural swans or swan)

Any of various species of large, long-necked waterfowl, of genus Cygnus (bird family: Anatidae), most of which have white plumage.
(figuratively) One whose grace etc. suggests a swan.
This bird used as a heraldic charge, sometimes with a crown around its neck (e. g. the arms of Buckinghamshire).

Verb (1)

swan (third-person singular simple present swans, present participle swanning, simple past and past participle swanned)

(intransitive) To travel or move about in an aimless, idle, or pretentiously casual way.
- He swans around that stinking office in his expensive clothes that are a little too tight for comfort, he swans around that stinking office without a care in the world.2010, Lee Rourke, The Canal, Melville House Publishing, →ISBN, unnumbered page
- One of the few strokes of good luck Emma had had in recent days was the news that Tatiana Flint-Hamilton, her only real rival for top billing as 'most photographable girl' at today's event had decided to swan off to Sardinia instead, leaving the limelight entirely to Emma.2013, Tilly Bagshawe, One Summer’s Afternoon, HarperCollins, →ISBN

Verb (2)

swan (third-person singular simple present swans, present participle swanning, simple past and past participle swanned)

(US, colloquial, dialectal) To declare (chiefly in first-person present constructions).
- "Well, I swan, man, I had a better opinion of you than that."1907 December, J. D. Archer, “Foiling an eavesdropper”, in Telephony, volume 14, page 345
- ‘She slammed the door so hard I figured a window'd break […].’ ‘I swan,’ I said.1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 214

Noun (2) capitalized: Swan

Swan (plural Swans)

(Australian rules football) someone connected with the Sydney Swans, as a fan, player, coach, etc.

Proper noun capitalized: Swan

Swan (countable and uncountable, plural Swans)

A surname transferred from the nickname.
A township and unincorporated community therein, in Noble County, Indiana.
A minor city in Marion County, Iowa.
An unincorporated community and township in Taney County, Missouri, named after Swan Creek.
An unincorporated community in Smith County, Texas.
An unincorporated community in the town of Frankfort, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
Other townships, in Illinois, Nebraska and Ohio, listed under Swan Township.
A local government area in Perth, Western Australia; in full, the City of Swan.

Noun (3) capitalized: Swan

Swan (plural Swans)

someone connected with Swansea City Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
- The Swans will doubtless recover, but they will head home this evening knowing that they didn't do themselves justice in a game that means so much to supporters.2013 November 3, Delme Parfitt, “Cardiff City 1 - 0 Swansea City: Steven Caulker heads Bluebirds to South Wales derby win”, in Wales Online

Noun (4) capitalized: SWAN

SWAN (uncountable)

(abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of syndrome without a name.

swan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

swan in Hindi

waterfowl of the genus Cygnus: हंस hans

swan in Tamil

waterfowl of the genus Cygnus: அன்னம் aṉṉam, தூவி tūvi

swan in Bengali

waterfowl of the genus Cygnus: রাজহাঁস rajohãs

More languagesFewer languages

swan in Telugu: హంస haṁsa
swan in Malayalam: അരയന്നം arayannaṁ, ഹംസം haṁsaṁ
swan in Kannada: ಹಂಸ haṃsa
swan in Gujarati: હંસ hãs
swan in Odia: ସ୍ୱାନ୍
swan in Sanskrit: हंस haṃsa
swan in Assamese: ৰাজহাঁহ razohãh
swan in Pashto: هېلۍ heləi
swan in Tagalog: sisne
swan in Arabic: تَمّ tamm, قُقْنُس quqnus, إِوَزّ عِرَاقِيّ ʔiwazz ʕirāqiyy
swan in Malay: joyinah
swan in Indonesian: angsa, soang
swan in Persian: قو qu, جویینه jūyīna
swan in Thai: หงส์ hǒng
swan in Vietnamese: thiên nga
swan in Myanmar: ငန်း ngan:
Kashmiri: أنٛز ạnz, أنٛزِنؠ ạnzin'

Examples of swan in a sentence

Mute swans need a long stretch of water in order to take off.
The mute swan, being one of the world's heaviest flying birds, can have a laborious takeoff.
There were ducks, geese, swans, you name it on the lake.

All 40 example sentences with swan

Forms of swan

Noun
plural	swans
plural	swan
plural	Swans
alternative form	Swann
Verb
third-person singular present	swans
present participle	swanning
past participle	swanned
past	swanned
alternative form	swanny
Proper noun
plural	Swans

Plural of swan: swans or swan

Origin of swan

From Middle English swan, from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz (“swan”, literally “the singing bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *swonh₂-/*swenh₂- (“to sing, make sound”). Cognate with West Frisian swan, Low German Swaan, swan, Dutch zwaan, German Schwan, Danish svane, Norwegian svane, Swedish svan. Related also to Old English ġeswin (“melody, song”), Old English swinsian (“to make melody”). Further cognates include (possibly) Russian звон (zvon, “ring, chime”); Latin sonus (“sound”), Sanskrit स्वन् (svan, “sound”). Doublet of sound.

Probably from dialectal I s’wan, a corruption of I shall warrant; or possibly from a minced form of I swear on.

From swan, the bird. * (surname): An English nickname from the swan bird.

Words formed from swan

Phrases with swan

22 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with swan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swan

What does swan mean?: Swan means any of various species of large, long-necked waterfowl, of genus Cygnus (bird family: Anatidae), most of which have white plumage.
What is swan in Hindi?: Swan in Hindi is हंस (hans). See Swan meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is swan?: Swan can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce swan?: Swan is pronounced /swɒn/ (UK).
What is the plural of swan?: The plural of swan is swans.

Words near swan in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: swan (page history and authors); Swan (page history and authors); SWAN (page history and authors); swan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-swan.ogg.

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