sweep

1. 1.

   a wide scope

   “the sweep of the plains”

   Synonymsexpanse

   Broaderscope
2. 2.

   someone who cleans soot from chimneys

   Synonymschimneysweeperchimneysweep

   Broadercleaner
3. 3.

   winning all or all but one of the tricks in bridge

   Synonymsslam

   Broadervictory

   Narrowergrand slamlittle slam

   Part ofbridge
4. 4.

   a long oar used in an open boat

   Synonymssweep oar

   Broaderoar
5. 5.

   (American football) an attempt to advance the ball by running around the end of the line

   Synonymsend run

   Broaderrun

   American football

6. 6.

   a movement in an arc

   “a sweep of his arm”

   Broadermotion

Other forms of sweep

plural

sweeps·

past tense or participle

swept

present participle

sweeping·

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 sweep

What does sweep mean?

sweep means "sweep across or over". That is the primary sense; the word has 15 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sweep?

sweep has 1 syllable: sweep. In IPA it is /ˈswip/.

What is another word for sweep?

Close synonyms include brush, sail, broom, embroil, tangle. 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 sweep a common word?

sweep 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.