swastika
Americannoun
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a figure used as a symbol or an ornament in the Old World and in America since prehistoric times, consisting of a cross with arms of equal length, each arm having a continuation at right angles.
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this figure as the official emblem of the Nazi party and the Third Reich.
noun
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a primitive religious symbol or ornament in the shape of a Greek cross, usually having the ends of the arms bent at right angles in either a clockwise or anticlockwise direction
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this symbol with clockwise arms, officially adopted in 1935 as the emblem of Nazi Germany
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swastika
1850–55; < Sanskrit svastika, equivalent to su- good, well (cognate with Greek eu- eu- ) + as- be ( see is) + -ti- abstract noun suffix + -ka secondary noun suffix
Vocabulary lists containing swastika
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.
While browsing a map of Madrid from 1940, Mr. Cheshire spotted a stamp in the top-left corner identifying its provenance: a black swastika.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025
Rep. Dave Taylor responded to reports that a flag bearing a swastika was spotted in his office on Wednesday, calling it “vile and deeply inappropriate.”
From Salon • Oct. 15, 2025
In 2017, she was interviewed by a local TV station after her school in Kansas was vandalised with a Nazi swastika.
From BBC • May 22, 2025
In very rare circumstances, a German typewriter would be made with a dedicated swastika key, like this one at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
From Slate • Mar. 16, 2024
Yet the majority of hate-crime offenders don’t fit the stereotype of the squinting, bristle-headed loner with a swastika tattoo or a Confederate flag T-shirt.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
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.
