Word.ws English Dictionary

swee

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Singapore/swi˦˨/

swee noun: a finch of species Coccopygia melanotis, found in sub-Saharan Africa.

swee: a finch of species Coccopygia melanotis, found in sub-Saharan Africa
Image: Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

swee (plural swees)

  1. A finch of species Coccopygia melanotis, found in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Synonyms:
    swee waxbill

Adjective

swee (comparative more swee, superlative most swee, reduplicated swee swee)

  1. (Singlish) Great, neat, nice, excellent (often used as an interjection when something has gone smoothly).
    • When it comes to charity, Irene will make sure everything is ‘swee swee’ (Hokkien for perfect).2011 April 3, Yeoh Wee Teck, quoting Harry Yew, The New Paper, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited, pages 10–11
    • “Sweee!” and “Gooaaal!” That’s the familiar cry heard throughout the neighbourhood. It’s English Premier League and there’s no greater equaliser ground than the kampung coffeeshop in uniting Singapore’s football fans and followers.2014 January 26, Sylvia Toh Paik Choo, The Sunday Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited, page 3
  2. (Singlish, rare) Neat and tidy.
  3. (Singlish, rare) Pretty, good-looking.

Synonyms of swee

  • swee waxbill

Forms of swee

Noun
pluralswees
Adjective
comparativemore swee
superlativemost swee
reduplicationswee swee

Origin of swee

Onomatopoeia, from its call.

From Hokkien 媠 (súi, “pretty”). Compare Tagalog yasuwi. Perhaps reinforced by sweet.

Phrases with swee

Questions about swee

What does swee mean?
Swee means a finch of species Coccopygia melanotis, found in sub-Saharan Africa.
What part of speech is swee?
Swee can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce swee?
Swee is pronounced /swi˦˨/ (Singapore).
What is the plural of swee?
The plural of swee is swees.

Words near swee in the dictionary

  1. Swedophiles
  2. Swedophobe
  3. Swedophobes
  4. Swedophone
  5. Swedophones
  6. swee
  7. swee swee
  8. Sweeden
  9. Sweedens
  10. sweedie
  11. Sweedy

Source and license

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