swede

/swiːd/

swede noun: the fleshy yellow root of a variety of rapeseed, Brassica napus var. napobrassica, resembling a large turnip, grown as a vegetable.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

swede (plural swedes)

(UK) The fleshy yellow root of a variety of rapeseed, Brassica napus var. napobrassica, resembling a large turnip, grown as a vegetable.
The plant from which this is obtained.

Synonyms:

rutabaga
(Ireland, Northern England, Scotland) The turnip.
(UK, slang) The head.
- Gotta be so careful nowadays; local copper's no problem but the cow from the council done me 'cos this almost brained a punter when it fell on his swede.2005, The Spectator, volume 299, page 49

Verb

swede (third-person singular simple present swedes, present participle sweding, simple past and past participle sweded)

To produce a low-budget remake of a film without the use of professional actors or filming techniques.
- Chances are you've sweded something before without even knowing it.2008, “The Five Most Awesomely Sweded Movies”, in Esquire
- Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones and John Rambo are this era's King Arthur, Beowulf and Robin Hood – and sweding represents a playful and heartfelt engagement with their myths.2014, The Guardian, Sweded movies: the end of Hollywood as we know it?

Noun (2) capitalized: Swede

Swede (plural Swedes)

A person from Sweden or of Swedish descent.
- For the past nine years Swedes have been frustrated by foreign submarines probing their coastal waters.1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 613
(historical) A member of an ancient North Germanic tribe that inhabited central Sweden.

swede meaning in Punjabi

swede in Punjabi

ਸਵਿੱਡ

Synonyms of swede

rutabaga
neep
yellow turnip
winter turnip

Forms of swede

Noun
plural	swedes
plural	Swedes
Verb
third-person singular present	swedes
present participle	sweding
past participle	sweded
past	sweded

Plural of swede: swedes

Origin of swede

From the earlier term Swedish turnip, because the Swedes introduced the plant to the English in the 1700s.

Coined by Michel Gondry in the film Be Kind Rewind, from the claim that films produced in this way were imported from Sweden.

From Middle Low German Swêde, from a Germanic word akin to Old Norse Svíþjóð, Old English Swēoþēod (“Sweden”, literally “Swede nation”), itself from Swēo (“Swede”), from Proto-Germanic *swihô (“Swede”). Cognate with Dutch Zweed, German Schwede. Doublet of suede.

Words formed from swede

Phrases with swede

Words that rhyme with swede

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swede

What does swede mean?: Swede means the fleshy yellow root of a variety of rapeseed, Brassica napus var. napobrassica, resembling a large turnip, grown as a vegetable.
What is swede in Punjabi?: Swede in Punjabi is ਸਵਿੱਡ. See Swede meaning in Punjabi.
What part of speech is swede?: Swede can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce swede?: Swede is pronounced /swiːd/.
What is the plural of swede?: The plural of swede is swedes.

Words near swede in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: swede (page history and authors); Swede (page history and authors); swede (Punjabi, 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-au-swede.ogg.

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