swash
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
The movement or sound of water.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
swahshIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈswɑʃ
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.
noun
The movement or sound of water
“The swash of waves on the beach.”
technical
The water that washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken.
A narrow sound or channel of water lying within a sand bank, or between a sand bank and the shore, or a bar over which the sea washes.
A smooth stroke; a swish.
A wet splashing sound.
A swishing noise.
verb
intransitive
To wade forcefully through liquid.
intransitive
To fall violently or noisily.
To streak, to color in a swash.
adjective
Bold; dramatic.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The movement or sound of water
Used this way, swash is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The swash of waves on the beach.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “swash of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Nearby words
- gas , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Natural pattern: swash of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use swash
- “The swash of waves on the beach.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.