Word.ws English Dictionary

sweam

sweam noun: a swimming of the head; a fainting fit; a swoon.

Noun

sweam (plural sweams)

  1. (dialectal) A swimming of the head; a fainting fit; a swoon.
  2. (dialectal) A sudden qualm of sickness.

Forms of sweam

pluralsweams
alternative formsweem
alternative formswaim
alternative formswame

Origin of sweam

From Middle English sweem, sweme, swem (“a dizziness”), from Middle English swemen (“to feel faint, be overcome”), from Old English *swǣman (“to trouble, grieve”); and also from Old Norse sveimr (“a bustle, stir”), from Proto-Germanic *swaimaz (“a moving to and fro, a sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweh₁- (“to sway, swing”). Cognate with Old Norse svími (“dizziness, fainting”) (Danish svime (“a swoon”)), Dutch zwijm (“a swoon, fainting fit”), Old English swīma (“vertigo, dizziness, a swoon”). More at swim.

Questions about sweam

What does sweam mean?
Sweam means a swimming of the head; a fainting fit; a swoon.
What part of speech is sweam?
Sweam is a noun.
What is the plural of sweam?
The plural of sweam is sweams.

Words near sweam in the dictionary

  1. sweal
  2. swealed
  3. swealing
  4. swealings
  5. sweals
  6. sweam
  7. sweamish
  8. sweams
  9. Sweany
  10. Sweanys
  11. swear

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sweam (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: “sweam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sweam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.