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PlainSpell

swear

/ˈswɛɚ/verb, noun, adjective

swear is spelled S-W-E-A-R. The wrong spelling people search most is swaer: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 36 of all searches for the word. Swear is a verb meaning “To take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect”.

How many letters and syllables are in swear?

Letters5: S-W-E-A-R
Syllables1
In writing32 times per million words; the 2,941st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, swaer, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell swear?

Swear is spelled S-W-E-A-R. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 36 of the searches for swear in either form.

swearthe right spelling700 searches a month
swaere and a swapped20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is swear?

Swear appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,941st 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 swear?

  • UK /ˈswɛə(ɹ)/
  • US /ˈswɛɚ/
  • Australia /ˈsweː/

Swear has one syllable.

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

What rhymes with swear?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as swear from its last stressed vowel (/ɛəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: wares, sawer.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of swear

  • swears present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • swearing participle, present
  • swore past
  • sworn participle, past
  • swearer comparative
  • more swear comparative
  • swearest superlative
  • most swear superlative
  • sweer
  • sweir
  • swere
  • sweared participle, past

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

What does swear mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.

    The knight swore not to return to the palace until he had found the treasure.

  2. 2

    To take an oath that an assertion is true.

    The witness swore that the person she had seen running out of the bank was a foot shorter than the accused.

  3. 3

    To promise intensely that something is true; to strongly assert.

    I swear I don't know what you're talking about.

  4. 4

    To administer an oath to (a person).

    Let the witness be sworn.

  5. 5

    To use offensive, profane, or obscene language.

  6. 6

    ScotlandTo be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours.

noun

  1. 1

    A swear word.

  2. 2

    ScotlandA lazy time; a short rest during working hours (especially field labour); a siesta.

adjective

  1. 1

    ScotlandHeavy.

  2. 2

    ScotlandTop-heavy; too high.

  3. 3

    ScotlandDull; lazy; slow.

  4. 4

    ScotlandReluctant; unwilling.

  5. 5

    ScotlandNiggardly.

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

Swear in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjurer (to take an oath), gronder (to curse, to use offensive language)
Germanschwören (to take an oath), schimpfen, fluchen (to curse, to use offensive language)
Portuguesejurar (to take an oath), praguejar, xingar (to curse, to use offensive language)
Spanishjurar (to take an oath), renegar, echar ternos, maldecir (to curse, to use offensive language)

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 swear come from?

From Middle English sweren, swerien, from Old English swerian (“to swear, take an oath of office”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarjan, from Proto-Germanic *swarjaną (“to speak, swear”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to swear”).

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

What to look up after swear