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swell

verb · noun · adverb

Simple meaning

To become bigger.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

swehl
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈswɛl

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.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.

  2. transitive

    To cause to become bigger.

  3. transitive

    To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.

  4. Cause to become swollen

  5. Become filled with pride, arrogance, or anger

    “The mother was swelling with importance when she spoke of her son.”

  6. transitive

    To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.

noun

  1. The act of swelling; increase in size.

  2. A bulge or protuberance.

  3. A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.

  4. A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.

  5. Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.

  6. The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

adverb

  1. canadausinformal

    Very well.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.

Used this way, swell 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 swell

  • “The mother was swelling with importance when she spoke of her son.”verb
  • “The music swelled to a crescendo.”verb
  • “The bellies of the starving children are swelling.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

ground swellheart swellocean swellgreat swell

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • swellingnounInflected form

    An abnormal protuberance or localized enlargement.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • swell upverbCompound term

    Expand abnormally.

  • swelled headnounCompound term

    An exaggerated opinion of your own importance.

  • ground swellnounCompound term

    An obvious change of public opinion or political sentiment that occurs without leadership or overt expression.

  • heavy swellnounCompound term

    A broad and deep undulation of the ocean.

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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.