swarm

1
[ swawrm ]
See synonyms for swarm on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a body of honeybees that emigrate from a hive and fly off together, accompanied by a queen, to start a new colony.

  2. a body of bees settled together, as in a hive.

  1. a great number of things or persons, especially in motion.

  2. Biology. a group or aggregation of free-floating or free-swimming cells or organisms.

  3. Geology. a cluster of earthquakes or other geologic phenomena or features.

verb (used without object)
  1. to fly off together in a swarm, as bees.

  2. to move about, along, forth, etc., in great numbers, as things or persons.

  1. to congregate, hover, or occur in groups or multitudes; be exceedingly numerous, as in a place or area.

  2. (of a place) to be thronged or overrun; abound or teem: The beach swarms with children on summer weekends.

  3. Biology. to move or swim about in a swarm.

verb (used with object)
  1. to swarm about, over, or in; throng; overrun.

  2. to produce a swarm of.

Origin of swarm

1
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English swearm; cognate with German Schwarm swarm, Old Norse svarmr “tumult”; the verb is derivative of the noun

synonym study For swarm

3. See crowd1.

Other words for swarm

Other words from swarm

  • swarmer, noun

Other definitions for swarm (2 of 2)

swarm2
[ swawrm ]

verb (used with or without object)
  1. to climb by clasping with the legs and hands or arms and drawing oneself up; shin.

Origin of swarm

2
First recorded in 1540–50; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use swarm in a sentence

  • The pavement is of rough cobble-stones, and swarms of dogs and children crowded the way everywhere.

  • Steadily the second division won ground, though they seemed lost102 in the swarms of the enemy, 'as they were plunged in the sea.'

    King Robert the Bruce | A. F. Murison
  • No escape from the steadily rising flood of letters and files,—none from the swarms of filthy flies.

  • It might be said to the Chinese, to the Japanese, to the English—your government swarms with abuses, which you do not correct!

    A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 (of 10) | Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
  • He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance.

British Dictionary definitions for swarm (1 of 2)

swarm1

/ (swɔːm) /


noun
  1. a group of social insects, esp bees led by a queen, that has left the parent hive in order to start a new colony

  2. a large mass of small animals, esp insects

  1. a throng or mass, esp when moving or in turmoil

verb
  1. (intr) (of small animals, esp bees) to move in or form a swarm

  2. (intr) to congregate, move about or proceed in large numbers

  1. (when intr, often foll by with) to overrun or be overrun (with): the house swarmed with rats

  2. (tr) to cause to swarm

Origin of swarm

1
Old English swearm; related to Old Norse svarmr uproar, Old High German swaram swarm

British Dictionary definitions for swarm (2 of 2)

swarm2

/ (swɔːm) /


verb
  1. (when intr, usually foll by up) to climb (a ladder, etc) by gripping with the hands and feet: the boys swarmed up the rigging

Origin of swarm

2
C16: of unknown origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012