Word.ws English Dictionary

swear

UK/ˈswɛə(ɹ)//ˈswɛɚ/

swear verb: to take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.

Verb (1)

swear (third-person singular simple present swears, present participle swearing, simple past swore or (archaic) sware, past participle sworn or (nonstandard) swore)

  1. (ambitransitive) To take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.
    • The knight swore not to return to the palace until he had found the treasure.
    Synonyms:
    pledge, vow
  2. (transitive) To take an oath that an assertion is true.
    • The witness swore that the person she had seen running out of the bank was a foot shorter than the accused.
    Synonyms:
    depose, affirm, testify
  3. (transitive) To promise intensely that something is true; to strongly assert.
    • I swear I don't know what you're talking about.
    • My little brother is such a pest, I swear.
  4. (transitive) To administer an oath to (a person).
    • Let the witness be sworn.
  5. (ambitransitive) To use offensive, profane, or obscene language.
    • An Australian was once appointed on contract, but he swore too much.1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 38

Noun (1)

swear (plural swears)

  1. A swear word.
    • You might think it funny to hear this Kanaka girl come out with a big swear. No such thing. There was no swearing in her — no, nor anger; she was beyond anger, and meant the word simple and serious.1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá
    • [A]ccording to his kind the man would smile cynically, or look sad, or let out a swear or two.1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page v. 27

Adjective

swear (comparative swearer or more swear, superlative swearest or most swear)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) Heavy.
    Synonyms:
    massive, massy, weighty
  2. (Northern England, Scotland) Top-heavy; too high.
    Synonyms:
    overbalanced
  3. (Northern England, Scotland) Dull; lazy; slow.
    • Rise up gueedewife, an dinna be sweer, / B'soothan, b'soothan, / An deal yir chirity t' the peer, / An awa b'mony a toon.1881, Walter Gregor, chapter XXII, in Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland, London: Folk-Lore Society, page 161
  4. (Northern England, Scotland) Reluctant; unwilling.
    • But faith, to glump ye I'd be sweer / I wish ye luck o' this new year1805, John Stagg, “A New Year's Epistle”, in Miscellaneous Poems, Workington: W. Borrowdale, page 139
    • My father will maybe be a wee sweer to take ye in, but ye maun make your way on him the best gate ye can; he has the best stockit pantry on Teviot head, but a bit of a Laidlaw's fault, complaining aye maist when he has least reason.1822, James Hogg, The Three Perils of Man
    Synonyms:
    disinclined, loath
  5. (Northern England, Scotland) Niggardly.
    • For if my Pen shall turn as Sweir's their Purse / I fear this is the last I'll write in Verse1714, Robert Smith, Poems of Controversy Betwixt Episcopacy and Presbytery, 2nd edition, Edinburgh: R. Syme & Son, published 1853, page 61
    Synonyms:
    miserly, penurious, as tight as Dick's hatband, cheap, cheeseparing, chintzy, close, close as wax, close-fisted, illiberal

Noun (2)

swear (plural swears)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) A lazy time; a short rest during working hours (especially field labour); a siesta.
    Synonyms:
    nap, undermeal

Verb (2)

swear (third-person singular simple present swears, present participle swearing, simple past and past participle sweared)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) To be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours.

swear meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

swear in Hindi

to curse, to use offensive language
कोसना kosnā, गाली देना gālī denā

swear in Tamil

சத்தியம் செய், சபித்தல்

swear in Urdu

swear
شپتھ śapath

swear in Bengali

to take an oath
কসম করা kôsôm kôra
More languagesFewer languages
swear in Telugu
ఒట్టు పెట్టు oṭṭu peṭṭu, ప్రమాణం చేయు pramāṇaṁ cēyu
swear in Malayalam
ആണയിടുക āṇayiṭuka, സത്യം ചെയ്യുക satyaṁ ceyyuka, തെറിപറയുക teṟipaṟayuka
swear in Kannada
ಸೂರುಳು
swear in Odia
ଶପଥ କରିବା
swear in Sanskrit
शपति śápati
swear in Nepali
गाली गर्नु gālī garnu, गाली gālī
swear in Arabic
حَلَفَ ḥalafa, أَقْسَمَ ʔaqsama, شَتَمَ šatama, سَبَّ sabba
swear in Persian
سوگند خوردن sowgand xordan, قسم خوردن qasam xordan, فحش دادن fohš dâdan, دشنام دادن došnâm dâdan
swear in Thai
สาบาน sǎa-baan, สบถ sà-bòt
swear in Vietnamese
thề, nói tục, văng tục, nói bậy
swear in Myanmar
ကျိန် kyin

Examples of swear in a sentence

  • You touch me again, I swear I’ll kick your teeth in.
  • Maybe I was imagining it, but I could swear that the dog understood what I was saying.
  • That's the umpteenth time I've had to tell him not to swear in front of the children.

All 40 example sentences with swear

Synonyms of swear

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of swear

Forms of swear

Verb
third-person singular presentswears
present participleswearing
pastswore
past participlesworn
past participlesweared
pastsweared
past (archaic)sware
past participle (nonstandard)swore
Noun
pluralswears
Adjective
comparativeswearer
comparativemore swear
superlativeswearest
superlativemost swear
alternative formsweer
alternative formsweir
alternative formswere

Past tense of swear: swore

Plural of swear: swears

Origin of swear

From Middle English sweren, swerien, from Old English swerian (“to swear, take an oath of office”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarjan, from Proto-Germanic *swarjaną (“to speak, swear”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to swear”). Cognate with West Frisian swarre (“to swear”), Saterland Frisian swera (“to swear”), Dutch zweren (“to swear, vow”), Low German swören (“to swear”), sweren, German schwören (“to swear”), Danish sværge, Swedish svära (“to swear”), Icelandic sverja (“to swear”), Russian свара (svara, “quarrel”). Also cognate to Albanian var (“to hang, consider, to depend from”) through Proto-Indo-European. The original sense in all Germanic languages is “to take an oath”. The sense “to use bad language” developed in Middle English and is based on the Christian prohibition against swearing in general (cf. Matthew 5:33-37) and invoking God’s name in particular (i.e. frequent swearing was considered similar to the use of obscene words).

From the above verb, or from Middle English sware, from Old English swaru, from Proto-Germanic *swarō.

From Middle English swere, swer, swar, from Old English swǣr, swār (“heavy, heavy as a burden, of great weight, oppressive, grievous, painful, unpleasant, sad, feeling or expressing grief, grave, slow, dull, sluggish, slothful, indolent, inactive from weakness, enfeebled, weak”), from Proto-West Germanic *swār, from Proto-Germanic *swēraz (“heavy”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“heavy”). Cognate with West Frisian swier (“heavy”), Dutch zwaar (“heavy, hard, difficult”), German schwer (“heavy, hard, difficult”), Danish svær (“heavy, hard, severe”), Swedish svår (“heavy, hard, severe”), Latin sērius (“earnest, grave, solemn, serious”) and Albanian varrë (“wound, plague”).

Words formed from swear

Phrases with swear

Words that rhyme with swear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swear

What does swear mean?
Swear means to take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.
What is swear in Hindi?
Swear in Hindi is कोसना (kosnā), गाली देना (gālī denā). See Swear meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is swear?
Swear can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce swear?
Swear is pronounced /ˈswɛə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the past tense of swear?
The past tense of swear is swore.

Words near swear in the dictionary

  1. sweam
  2. sweamish
  3. sweams
  4. Sweany
  5. Sweanys
  6. swear
  7. swear at
  8. swear blind
  9. swear box
  10. swear boxes
  11. swear by

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swear (page history and authors); swear (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); شپتھ (Urdu) (page history and authors); swear (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swear (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); शपति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); गाली (Nepali) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-swear.ogg.

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