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sweeping

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Wide, broad, affecting or touching upon many things.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sweeping

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈswipɪŋ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Wide, broad, affecting or touching upon many things.

  2. Moving in a continuous motion, rather than by intermittent jumps. (For example, the second hand on a clock face may move either in the sweeping manner or in the ticking manner.)

  3. Completely overwhelming.

noun

  1. uncountable

    The activity of sweeping.

  2. countable

    An instance of sweeping.

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: Wide, broad, affecting or touching upon many things.

Used this way, sweeping 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.

More ways to use sweeping

  • “After the party, the sweeping of the floor took a long time.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

sweeping statementsweeping gesturesweeping reforms

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • sweepverbBase word

    Sweep across or over.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • sweepernounPerson or profession

    An employee who sweeps (floors or streets etc.).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: wide or broad or affecting

moving

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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.