Word.ws English Dictionary

swerf

UK/swɜːf//swɝf/

swerf is the alternative letter-case form of SWERF.

Noun capitalized: SWERF

SWERF (plural SWERFs)

  1. A sex worker-exclusionary radical feminist; a feminist who opposes the sex industry, particularly the production and distribution of pornography, typically viewing it as coercive or abusive of the women involved.
    • Conversely, many intersectional feminists see TERFs or sex worker exclusionary radical feminists (SWERFs) as bigots and bullies.2016, Giuliana Monteverde, “Navigating Complicity in Contemporary Feminist Discourse”, in Afxentis Afxentiou, Michael Neu, Robin Dunford, editors, Exploring Complicity: Concept, Cases and Critique...
    • SWERFs (sex worker exclusionary radical feminists), they also dubbed us TERFs (transgender exclusionary radical feminists) because, as one protester shouted, 'Trans women sex workers of colour are dying thanks to SWERFs!'2021, Julie Bindel, Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation, unnumbered page

Forms of swerf

pluralswerfs
pluralSWERFs

Origin of swerf

Acronym of sex worker-exclusionary radical feminist, on the model of TERF.

Words formed from swerf

Questions about swerf

What does swerf mean?
Swerf means a sex worker-exclusionary radical feminist; a feminist who opposes the sex industry, particularly the production and distribution of pornography, typically viewing it as coercive or abusive of the women involved.
What is swerf the alternative letter-case form of?
Swerf is the alternative letter-case form of SWERF.
What part of speech is swerf?
Swerf is a noun.
How do you pronounce swerf?
Swerf is pronounced /swɝf/ (US).
What is the plural of swerf?
The plural of swerf is swerfs.

Words near swerf in the dictionary

  1. sweptwing
  2. SWER
  3. swerd
  4. Swerdloff
  5. swere
  6. swerf
  7. Swerford
  8. swerfs
  9. SWERFy
  10. Swerga
  11. Swergas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swerf (page history and authors); SWERF (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-SWERF.wav.

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