swallow
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To cause to pass from the mouth into the stomach.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
swahlohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈswɑloʊ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.
Take back what one has said
transitive
To take (something) in so that it disappears; to consume, absorb.
intransitive
To take food down into the stomach; to make the muscular contractions of the oesophagus to achieve this, often taken as a sign of nervousness or strong emotion.
Believe or accept without questioning or challenge
“Am I supposed to swallow that story?”
transitive
To put up with; to bear patiently or without retaliation.
noun
The amount swallowed in one gulp; the act of swallowing.
“One swallow of the liquid was enough.”
A small, migratory bird of the Hirundinidae family with long, pointed, moon-shaped wings and a forked tail which feeds on the wing by catching insects.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To cause (food, drink etc.) to pass from the mouth into the stomach; to take into the stomach through the throat.
Used this way, swallow is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Believeverb
“Am I supposed to swallow that story?”
Amount swallowednoun
“One swallow of the liquid was enough.”
More ways to use swallow
- “The huge waves swallowed the small boat and it sank shortly thereafter.”verb
- “One swallow of the liquid was enough.”noun
- “Am I supposed to swallow that story?”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A depression in the ground communicating with a subterranean passage (especially in limestone) and formed by solution or by collapse of a cavern roof.
Australasian and Asiatic bird related to the shrikes and resembling a swallow.
A man's full-dress jacket with two long tapering tails at the back.
Graceful North American black-and-white kite.
Graceful North American black-and-white kite.
Enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.