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PlainSpell

swab

/swɒb/noun, verb

swab is spelled S-W-A-B: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, swab means “A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of swab is swabs.

How many letters and syllables are in swab?

Letters4: S-W-A-B
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is swab?

Swab appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce swab?

  • /swɒb/

Swab has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-swab.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of swab

  • swabs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • swabbing participle, present
  • swabbed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does swab mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access.

  2. 2

    A sample taken with a swab (piece of absorbent material).

  3. 3

    A piece of material used for cleaning or sampling other items like musical instruments or guns.

  4. 4

    A mop, especially on a ship.

  5. 5

    slangA sailor; a swabby.

  6. 6

    slangA naval officer's epaulet.

verb

  1. 1

    To use a swab on something, or clean something with a swab.

    swab the deck of a ship

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Swab in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchécouvillon (a small piece of soft, absorbent material)
GermanTupfer (a small piece of soft, absorbent material), Abstrich (A sample taken with a swab), Läppchen (A piece of material used for cleaning or…), Wischmopp (A mop, especially on a ship), Seemann (A sailor), putzen (To use a swab on something, or clean something…)
Spanishhisopo (Arg., Mex., Ur. y Ven.) (a small piece of soft, absorbent material), frotis (A sample taken with a swab)
Portuguesecotonete (A mop, especially on a ship)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does swab come from?

Mid 17th century (in the sense 'mop for cleaning the decks'): back-formation from Middle English swabber (“sailor detailed to swab decks”), from Middle Dutch zwabber, from a Germanic base meaning 'splash' or 'sway', also found as nautical German Schwabber and Volga German Schwabber ("scrubber, mop, swab")

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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