What does swallow mean?

swallow means "pass through the esophagus as part of eating or drinking". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in swallow?

swallow has 2 syllables: swal-low. The stress falls on "swal". In IPA it is /ˈswɑloʊ/.

What is another word for swallow?

Close synonyms include get down, immerse, swallow up, bury, eat up. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is swallow a common word?

swallow is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

swallow — meaning, pronunciation and 11 definitions

verb

8 sensesAn action, occurrence or state of being.

1.
pass through the esophagus as part of eating or drinking
“Swallow the raw fish--it won't kill you!”
Synonymsget down
Narrowerbolt
2.
engulf and destroy
“The Nazis swallowed the Baltic countries”
Broaderdemolish
3.
enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing
“The huge waves swallowed the small boat and it sank shortly thereafter”
Synonymsimmerse swallow up bury eat up
Broaderenclose
4.
utter indistinctly
“She swallowed the last words of her speech”
Broadertalk
5.
take back what one has said
“He swallowed his words”
Synonymstake back unsay withdraw
Broaderdisown
6.
keep from expressing
“I swallowed my anger and kept quiet”
Broaderrestrain
7.
tolerate or accommodate oneself to
“I shall have to accept these unpleasant working conditions”
“I swallowed the insult”
“She has learned to live with her husband's little idiosyncrasies”
Synonymsaccept live with
Broaderdigest
8.
believe or accept without questioning or challenge
“Am I supposed to swallow that story?”
Broaderbelieve

noun

3 sensesA person, place, thing, quality or idea.

1.
a small amount of liquid food
“a sup of ale”
Synonymssup
Broadertaste
2.
the act of swallowing
“one swallow of the liquid was enough”
“he took a drink of his beer and smacked his lips”
Synonymsdrink deglutition
Broaderconsumption
Narroweraerophagia gulp sip
3.
small long-winged songbird noted for swift graceful flight and the regularity of its migrations
Broaderoscine
Narrowerbarn swallow cliff swallow tree swallow white-bellied swallow martin

Other forms of swallow

plural: swallows·
past tense: swallowed·
present participle: swallowing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about swallow

What does swallow mean?: swallow means "pass through the esophagus as part of eating or drinking". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.
How many syllables are in swallow?: swallow has 2 syllables: swal-low. The stress falls on "swal". In IPA it is /ˈswɑloʊ/.
What is another word for swallow?: Close synonyms include get down, immerse, swallow up, bury, eat up. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.
Is swallow a common word?: swallow is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for swallow come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.

verb

8 sensesAn action, occurrence or state of being.

1.
pass through the esophagus as part of eating or drinking
“Swallow the raw fish--it won't kill you!”
Synonymsget down
Narrowerbolt
2.
engulf and destroy
“The Nazis swallowed the Baltic countries”
Broaderdemolish
3.
enclose or envelop completely, as if by swallowing
“The huge waves swallowed the small boat and it sank shortly thereafter”
Synonymsimmerse swallow up bury eat up
Broaderenclose
4.
utter indistinctly
“She swallowed the last words of her speech”
Broadertalk
5.
take back what one has said
“He swallowed his words”
Synonymstake back unsay withdraw
Broaderdisown
6.
keep from expressing
“I swallowed my anger and kept quiet”
Broaderrestrain
7.
tolerate or accommodate oneself to
“I shall have to accept these unpleasant working conditions”
“I swallowed the insult”
“She has learned to live with her husband's little idiosyncrasies”
Synonymsaccept live with
Broaderdigest
8.
believe or accept without questioning or challenge
“Am I supposed to swallow that story?”
Broaderbelieve

noun

3 sensesA person, place, thing, quality or idea.

1.
a small amount of liquid food
“a sup of ale”
Synonymssup
Broadertaste
2.
the act of swallowing
“one swallow of the liquid was enough”
“he took a drink of his beer and smacked his lips”
Synonymsdrink deglutition
Broaderconsumption
Narroweraerophagia gulp sip
3.
small long-winged songbird noted for swift graceful flight and the regularity of its migrations
Broaderoscine
Narrowerbarn swallow cliff swallow tree swallow white-bellied swallow martin

Other forms of swallow

plural: swallows·
past tense: swallowed·
present participle: swallowing·

Questions about swallow

What does swallow mean?: swallow means "pass through the esophagus as part of eating or drinking". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.
How many syllables are in swallow?: swallow has 2 syllables: swal-low. The stress falls on "swal". In IPA it is /ˈswɑloʊ/.
What is another word for swallow?: Close synonyms include get down, immerse, swallow up, bury, eat up. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.
Is swallow a common word?: swallow is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

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swallow

verb

noun

Other forms of swallow

Questions about swallow

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swallow

verb

noun

Other forms of swallow

Questions about swallow