Word.ws English Dictionary

sworn

/swɔːn//swɔɹn/

sworn is the past participle of swear.

Adjective

sworn (not comparable)

  1. Given or declared under oath.
    • His sworn statement convinced the judge.
  2. Bound as though by an oath.
    • I'm sworn to secrecy.
    • Swum ashore, man, like a duck. I can swim like a duck, I'll be sworn.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  3. Ardent, devout.
    • a sworn foe
    • a sworn socialist

Meaning of swear

Verb (1)

swear (third-person singular simple present swears, present participle swearing, simple past swore or (archaic) sware, past participle sworn or (nonstandard) swore)

  1. (ambitransitive) To take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.
    • The knight swore not to return to the palace until he had found the treasure.
    Synonyms:
    pledge, vow
  2. (transitive) To take an oath that an assertion is true.
    • The witness swore that the person she had seen running out of the bank was a foot shorter than the accused.
    Synonyms:
    depose, affirm, testify
  3. (transitive) To promise intensely that something is true; to strongly assert.
    • I swear I don't know what you're talking about.
  4. (transitive) To administer an oath to (a person).
    • Let the witness be sworn.
  5. (ambitransitive) To use offensive, profane, or obscene language.
    • An Australian was once appointed on contract, but he swore too much.1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 38

Verb (2)

swear (third-person singular simple present swears, present participle swearing, simple past and past participle sweared)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) To be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours.

See all 13 meanings of swear

Origin of sworn

From Middle English sworen, isworen, from Old English sworen, ġesworen, from Proto-West Germanic *swaran, *giswaran, from Proto-Germanic *swaranaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *swarjaną (“to swear”), equivalent to swear + -en.

Words formed from sworn

Phrases with sworn

9 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sworn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sworn

What does sworn mean?
Sworn means given or declared under oath.
What is sworn the past participle of?
Sworn is the past participle of swear.
What part of speech is sworn?
Sworn is an adjective.
How do you pronounce sworn?
Sworn is pronounced /swɔːn/ (UK).

Words near sworn in the dictionary

  1. swore on a stack of Bibles
  2. swore the peace
  3. swore to God
  4. swore upon
  5. sworest
  6. sworn
  7. sworn at
  8. sworn blind
  9. sworn broker
  10. sworn brokers
  11. sworn by

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sworn (page history and authors); swear (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)-Pvanp7-sworn.wav, En-us-sworn.ogg.

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