swimming

Syllables: swim·ming/ˈswɪmɪŋ/

swimming noun: the act or art of sustaining and propelling the body in water. Also the present participle and gerund of swim.

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Noun (1)

swimming (countable and uncountable, plural swimmings)

The act or art of sustaining and propelling the body in water.
- Triathlon competitors take part in open water swimming.
- The daring adventures of the American people in their scalings of the Alps and the Rocky mountains and in their swimmings across the Niagara rapids […]1909, Swami Rama Tirtha, In Woods of God-realization: The pole star within, 7th edition

Noun (2)

swimming (countable and uncountable, plural swimmings)

The state of being dizzy or in vertigo.
- Then I take my pipe of Tabacco, sitting close by a warme fire, the space of halfe an houre and more, vntill the giddinesse and swimming in my head be past, and the medicine also haue done it feate : then I vse to gargle my mouth with a cuppe of beere, well warmed with a toste.1602, A New and Short Defense of Tabacco: with the effectes of the same: and of the right vse thereof, London: Clement Knight, “Rule”, unnumbered page
- But when the worms are killed with the aforesaid medicines, you must driue them out without delay : for there proceedeth a vicious exhalation from them, which both destroyeth appetite, and hurteth digestion, and being lifted vpward, it causeth swimmings, and other euils.1624, Philip Barrough, The Method of Physick, Contaning the Cavses, Signes, and Cvres of Inward Diseases in Mans Body, From the Head to the Foote: […], 6th edition, London: Richard Field, page 134

Also used as

swimming is also the present participle and gerund of swim.

swimming meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

swimming in Hindi

human activity of moving oneself through water: तैराकी tairākī

swimming in Tamil

நீச்சல், நீந்துதல், நீந்துவது

swimming in Marathi

पोहणे, जलतरण

swimming in Urdu

human activity of moving oneself through water: تَیراکی tairākī

More languagesFewer languages

swimming in Bengali: সাঁতার śãtar
swimming in Telugu: ఈత కొట్టడం, ఈత, స్విమ్మింగ్
swimming in Malayalam: നീന്തൽ nīntal
swimming in Kannada: ಈಜು, ಈಜುವುದು
swimming in Punjabi: ਤੈਰਾਕੀ, ਤੈਰਨਾ, ਤੈਰਾਕੀ ਕਰਨਾ
swimming in Gujarati: તરવું, તરણ, સ્વિમિંગ
swimming in Odia: ପହଁରା pahãrā
swimming in Assamese: সাঁতোৰ xãtür, সাঁতোৰা xãtüra
swimming in Nepali: स्विमिङ
swimming in Arabic: سِبَاحَة sibāḥa
swimming in Malay: berenang
swimming in Indonesian: berenang
swimming in Thai: การว่ายน้ำ gaan-wâai-náam
swimming in Vietnamese: bơi lội
swimming in Myanmar: ရေကူးခြင်း reku:hkrang:

Examples of swimming in a sentence

Though we don’t all reach nirvana when we swim, swimming may well be that last refuge from connectivity — and, for some, the only way to find the solitary self.2014 February 14, Bonnie Tsui, “The Self-Reflecting Pool”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2021:
[The Speedwell] doth also wonderfully helpe the memory, and to ease all turnings and swimmings, and other paines of the head, and as it is sayd helpeth women to become fruitfull, that were barren[.]1640, John Parkinson, Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants. Or, an Herball of Large Extent: […], London, page 552:
Swimmings of the head and intestinal pains seemed the prelude of dissolution.1869, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Miscellany of Instructive & Entertaining Tracts, page 2:

All 40 example sentences with swimming

Forms of swimming

plural	swimmings

Origin of swimming

From Middle English swymmynge. Equivalent to swim (“to move through water”, verb) + -ing (suffix forming gerunds).

From swim (“to be dizzy”, verb) + -ing (suffix forming gerunds).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Phrases with swimming

5 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with swimming

Questions about swimming

What does swimming mean?: Swimming means the act or art of sustaining and propelling the body in water.
What is swimming in Hindi?: Swimming in Hindi is तैराकी (tairākī). See Swimming meaning in Hindi.
How do you use swimming in a sentence?: Though we don’t all reach nirvana when we swim, swimming may well be that last refuge from connectivity — and, for some, the only way to find the solitary self.
What part of speech is swimming?: Swimming is a noun.
How do you pronounce swimming?: Swimming is pronounced /ˈswɪmɪŋ/.
What is the plural of swimming?: The plural of swimming is swimmings.

Words near swimming in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: swimming (page history and authors); swimming (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swimming (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swimming (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swimming (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swimming (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swimming (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swimming (Nepali, 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-us-swimming.ogg.

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