swarm

¹ American  

[swawrm] / swɔrm /

noun

• swarms
  plural

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.

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

   Synonyms:

   mass, host, horde

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

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

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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.

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

4. (of a place) to be thronged or overrun; abound or teem.

   The beach swarms with children on summer weekends.

5. 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.

swarm ² American  

[swawrm] / swɔrm /

verb (used with or without object)

1. to climb by clasping with the legs and hands or arms and drawing oneself up; shin.

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swarm ¹ British  

/ 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

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

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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

3. to overrun or be overrun (with)

   the house swarmed with rats

4. (tr) to cause to swarm

swarm ² British  

/ swɔːm /

verb

1. to climb (a ladder, etc) by gripping with the hands and feet

   the boys swarmed up the rigging

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Synonym Usage

See crowd ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• swarmer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• swarms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of swarm¹

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

Origin of swarm²

First recorded in 1540–50; origin uncertain

Explanation

A swarm is a good word for a large group of bees going on the attack — not good news. Like bees, any group of people or animals can be considered a swarm if they act together and quickly — even fiercely. On a hot day, when an ice-cream truck shows up, it's usually greeted by a swarm of hot, hungry kids. People at a concert can be a swarm — and people in the swarm can be hurt, because there's lots of pushing and shoving. When tickets for a popular movie go on sale, a swarm of people will swarm the theater. As you can see, swarm works as either a noun or verb, and people could teach bees a thing or two about swarming.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

swarm swarms

The swarm of seismic activity was clustered around the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone, a strike-slip fault that runs from Culver City to Newport Beach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

One of the risks outlined in Amodei's comments was of a swarm of bots acting like a supercomputer that could take over the internet.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

Instead of scheming to hack a company, a swarm with as many as 10,000 agents hacked away at math for 88 hours, building on each other’s work—and the work of humans—until they reached a solution.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet,” he wrote on Saturday.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 12, 2026

I click redial as Dad is led into a swarm of navy jackets.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Concern stems from recent reports that Anthropic blocked use of AI tools to develop bioweapons and that swarms of AI bots autonomously undertook massive hacking operations.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026

Fusion startup Xcimer Energy is working with aerospace and defense company RTX RTX -0.63%decrease; down pointing triangle to develop pulsed laser weapons to shoot down drone swarms, missiles or other threats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

After the fire, residents faced rats and swarms of flies that descended on the area as Lineage worked to remove the rotting food.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

Ratel makes unmanned ground vehicles, while Swarmer builds the artificial-intelligence software that lets aerial drones coordinate in swarms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

Dead fish and gooey vegetable matter were exposed and rotted, while swarms of insects droned in the heavy, humid air.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy

Related Words

• congregate
• crawl
• flock
• gather
• overrun
• stream
• teem
• throng