# sweeten

> English word · Verb · IPA /ˈswiːtən/ · frequency rank #38,641

## Definitions
1. To make sweet to the taste.
2. To make (more) pleasant or to the mind or feelings.
3. To make mild or kind; to soften.
4. To make less painful or laborious; to relieve.
5. To soften to the eye; to make delicate.
6. To make pure and healthful by destroying noxious matter.
7. To make warm and fertile.
8. To raise the pH of (a soil) by adding alkali.
9. To restore to purity; to free from taint.
10. To make more attractive; said of offers in negotiations.
11. To become sweet.
12. To supplement (a composition) with additional instruments, especially strings.

## Etymology
From sweet + -en. Eclipsed non-native Middle English doucen and endoucen, borrowed from Old French adoucir and endoucir (“to sweeten”).

## Easily confused with
- **sweets** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweets)
- **sweety** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweety)
- **sweetie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweetie)
- **sweetly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweetly)
- **sweetest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweetest)
- **sweetened** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweetened)
- **sweetener** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeten-vs-sweetener)
- **sweet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweet-vs-sweeten)
- **Sweden** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweden-vs-sweeten)
- **sweater** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweater-vs-sweeten)
- **Sweeney** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeney-vs-sweeten)
- **sweeper** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sweeper-vs-sweeten)

## Common misspellings (10)
`seweten`, `ssweeten`, `sweeetn`, `sweetenn`, `sweetne`, `sweetten`, `sweteen`, `sweten`, `swweeten`, `wseeten`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sweeten