swamp

CEFRB1

/ˈswɒmp/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Wet, muddy land with many plants.

  2. 02

    verb

    To overwhelm or fill with too much of something.

Examples

  • Founding your life on illusions is like building a house on a swamp.

  • How did you fall into the swamp? Someone shoved us.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.

  2. The alleged corruption, cronyism, inefficiency, and entrenched interests in the federal government, especially in Washington, DC.

  3. An area of wet (water-saturated), spongy (soft) land, often with trees, generally a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals but ill-suited for many agricultural purposes. (A type of wetland. Compare marsh, bog, fen.)

More examples

In context

  • The plague came from the swamp.

  • I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.

  • Some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but more profitable than hurtfull.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The explorers had to cross the muddy blank filled with dangerous snakes and alligators.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Early attestations (starting in 1624) are from North America, but the term was probably in local use in Britain earlier. The etymology is not entirely certain; it is probably a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh”, also “fungus, mushroom”) — from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), from Proto-West Germanic *swamm, from Proto-Germanic *swambaz, *swammaz — and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from either Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”) or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”) (from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”)), both from Proto-West Germanic *sump, from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. *Swambaz, *swammaz and *sumpaz are likely related to each...