swift
/swɪft/
swift adjective: fast; quick; rapid.
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Adjective
Adverb
swift (comparative more swift, superlative most swift)
- Swiftly.
- Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Ply swift and strong the oar.1793, Robert Southey, Lord William
- Synonyms:
- swith
Noun (1)
swift (plural swifts)
- A small plain-colored bird of the family Apodidae that resembles a swallow and is noted for its rapid flight.
- Synonyms:
- needletail, spinetail, swiftlet
- Any of certain lizards of the genus Sceloporus.
- As a guide to start your collection we'd suggest either iguanas, tejus, swifts, basilisks, horned toads or alligator lizards.1965 March, Boys' Life, page 52
- Synonyms:
- fence lizard, spiny lizard
- A moth of the family Hepialidae, swift moth, ghost moth.
- Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7
- Any of various fast-flying hesperiid butterflies.
- A light, collapsible reel used to hold a hank of yarn in order to wind off skeins or balls.
- The main cylinder of a carding-machine.
- The current of a stream.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: SWIFT
SWIFT
- Acronym of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
- Synonyms:
- Society for Worldwide Financial Telecommunication
- Acronym of South Wales Integrated Fast transit.
- Acronym of Southwest Airlines Integrated Flights Tracking.
- Acronym of Statewide Interlibrary loan Fast Track.
- Acronym of State Wildland Inmate Fire Team.
- Acronym of Simple Web Interface Toolset.
Noun (2) capitalized: SWIFT
SWIFT
- Acronym of Structured What If Technique.
- Acronym of Stored Waveform Inverse Fourier Transform.
- Acronym of Stratospheric Wind Interferometer For Transport Studies.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Swift
Swift (countable and uncountable, plural Swifts)
- A surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a swift or quick person.
- Taylor Swift has countless Grammys and American Music Awards, but this new honor will be a first for the global pop star.2022 April 20, Megan Marples, “Taylor Swift inspired an entomologist to name a new millipede species after the megastar”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 Apr 2022
- A general-purpose multi-paradigm compiled programming language introduced by Apple Inc. in 2014.
- If anyone outside Apple saw Swift coming, they certainly weren't making any public predictions.2014 June 5, John Timmer, “A fast look at Swift, Apple’s new programming language”, in Ars Technica, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2021
- Apple has made its Swift programming tools open source, Google opened up its TensorFlow machine-learning software, and IBM did the same with its SystemML.2015 December 14, Steve Lohr, “Stephen Wolfram Aims to Democratize His Software”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 29 Jan 2023
- Alternative letter-case form of SWIFT (“Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication”).
- That year [2012], Iran was cut off from the Swift global payment system.2026 January 13, Andrew England, “Iran's stuttering economy sows seeds of unrest”, in Financial Times, page 3
- An unincorporated community in DuPage County, Illinois, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Roseau County, Minnesota, United States.
- An extinct town in Pemiscot County, Missouri, United States.
- A minor river in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom; a which joins the (Warwickshire) in Avon north of Rugby.
- Ellipsis of Swift County
- Alternative letter-case form of SWIFT
swift meaning in Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic and Malay
swift in Hindi
- fast; quick; rapid
- त्वरित tvarit
- reel
- अटेरन aṭeran, तकला taklā
swift in Sanskrit
- fast; quick; rapid
- आशु āśu, रघु raghu, जव java
swift in Arabic
- bird
- خُطَّاف ḵuṭṭāf
swift in Malay
- fast; quick; rapid
- ligas
More languagesFewer languages
- swift in Indonesian
- walet
- swift in Persian
- داسک dāsak, بادخورک bādxorak, پالوانه pālvāne, دمسنجه domsanjeh
- swift in Vietnamese
- yến
Examples of swift in a sentence
- The river’s swift current carried the boat downstream.
- She gave a swift reply to his question.
- Spain were provoked into a response and Villa almost provided a swift equaliser when he rounded Hart but found the angle too acute and could only hit the side-netting.2011 November 12, Phil McNulty, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2021:
- Let no thing escape; / Catch these for me before we all are flown, / Torn, violate, by time’s triumphal rape: / Run swift into the wheeling day; the night / Takes all of us.1945, Charles Edward Butler, “Prelude to My Poem”, in Cut Is the Branch (The Yale Series of Younger Poets; 43), New York, N.Y.: AMS Press...
Synonyms of swift
- swith
- needletail
- spinetail
- swiftlet
- fence lizard
- spiny lizard
- Society for Worldwide Financial Telecommunication
Forms of swift
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | swifter |
| superlative | swiftest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more swift |
| superlative | most swift |
| Noun | |
| plural | swifts |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Swifts |
Origin of swift
From Middle English swift, from Old English swift (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Germanic *swiftaz (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weyp- (“to twist; wind around”). Cognate with Icelandic svipta (“to pull quickly”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”). More at swivel.
Abbreviation.
Derived from swift, from Middle English swift, from Old English swift, from swīfan, from Proto-Germanic *swībaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kswéybʰ-e-ti, from *ksweybʰ-.
Words formed from swift
- Hiddleswift
- Swift County
- Swiftdom
- Swiftian
- Swiftie
- Swiftism
- Swiftmania
- Swift Quake
- Swift-Tuttle
- Swifty
- Tom Swifty
- Tom Swiftie
- gold swift
- outswift
- overswift
- over-swift
- swiftboat
- Swift Boat
- swift-boat
- swift boating
- swift-boating
- swiftboating
- Swift Current
- swiften
- swift-flowing
- swift-flying
- swiftfoot
- swiftfooted
- swift-footed
- swift fox
- swift fruit bat
- swift half
- swifthanded
- swift-handed
- swiftly
- swiftness
- swift parrot
- swift tern
- swift-thinking
- swiftwater
- swiftwing
- ultraswift
- Lyell’s swift
- swiftlike
- rice swift
- swiftless
- swift brick
- African swift
- alpine swift
- Andean swift
- ashy-tailed swift
- band-rumped swift
- Bates's swift
- black swift
- Blyth's swift
- Bradfield's swift
- chimney swift
- common swift
- Cook's swift
- Costa Rican swift
Phrases with swift
- swift moth
- ghost swift
- swift boats
- swift foxes
- swift moths
- swift terns
- orange swift
- swift boated
- swift bricks
- Swift Quakes
- Lyell's swift
- swift parrots
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with swift
Questions about swift
- What does swift mean?
- Swift means fast; quick; rapid.
- What is swift in Hindi?
- Swift in Hindi is त्वरित (tvarit), अटेरन (aṭeran), तकला (taklā). See Swift meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use swift in a sentence?
- The river’s swift current carried the boat downstream.
- What part of speech is swift?
- Swift can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce swift?
- Swift is pronounced /swɪft/.
Words near swift in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swift (page history and authors); SWIFT (page history and authors); Swift (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: en-us-swift.ogg.
Cite this entry: “swift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.