swamp
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A piece of wet, spongy land.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
swahmpIPA pronunciation (US)
swɑmp
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.
verb
To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
“I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.”
To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
To drench or fill with water.
“The boat was swamped in the storm.”
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
Used this way, swamp 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
- Matter-of-fact
- 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.
Overwhelmverb
“I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.”
Drenchverb
“The boat was swamped in the storm.”
More ways to use swamp
- “He was trapped in a medical swamp.”noun
- “The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor.”verb
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: piece of wet or spongy land
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.