Other Word Forms
- swampiness noun
- unswampy adjective
Etymology
Origin of swampy
Explanation
Something that's swampy is very wet and soggy, like a swampy baseball field after four days of heavy rain. Something swampy resembles a swamp, a wetland where trees, shrubs, and other plants grow. The "wetland" part is what's important when it comes to this adjective, which you can use for sloppy, squishy places that get your feet really wet. That park won't work for croquet — the grass is so swampy! Swampy can also describe literal swamps: "Cypress trees grow in the swampy areas of Louisiana bordering the Mississippi River."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Their breath was believed to poison the air and suffocate the land, especially in swampy regions where disease was common.
From Science Daily • Feb. 2, 2026
The sun is setting over Ilubirin, a half-finished housing estate being constructed on sand-filled land reclaimed from the swampy Lagos lagoon.
From Barron's • Dec. 22, 2025
According to these organizations, the answer to reversing toxic algae lies in Ohio’s swampy past.
From Salon • Aug. 16, 2025
With worries about the spread of gun ownership in his head, Fogerty devised one of his eeriest productions for this swampy psych-rock number.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2025
The trip to the kitchen and back could not have taken more than two minutes, yet in that time I tramped through swampy cemeteries, climbed over dusty gravestones and eluded litters of night-black cats.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
