swale
/sweɪl/
"swale" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“swale” is an uncommon English word, ranked #79,104 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #79,104
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A low tract of moist or marshy land.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | swale |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sweɪl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #79,104 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “swale” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for swale is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sweɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #79,104 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
swale doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly from Middle English swale (“a shady place, a shadow”), perhaps of North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse svalr (“cool, fresh”), Icelandic svalir (“a balcony running along a wall”). The correct English form is swale, spelled S-W-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1A low tract of moist or marshy land.
- 2A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
- 3A shallow troughlike depression created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
- 4Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
- 5A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
Etymology
Possibly from Middle English swale (“a shady place, a shadow”), perhaps of North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse svalr (“cool, fresh”), Icelandic svalir (“a balcony running along a wall”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "swale"?
What does "swale" mean?
How do you pronounce "swale"?
What is the origin of the word "swale"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “swale”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-W-A-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sweɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.