swath

American  

[swoth, swawth] / swɒθ, swɔθ /

noun

• swaths
  plural

1. the space covered by the stroke of a scythe or the cut of a mowing machine.

2. the piece or strip so cut.

3. a line or ridge of grass, grain, or the like, cut and thrown together by a scythe or mowing machine.

4. a strip, belt, or long and relatively narrow extent of anything.

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idioms

1. cut a swath, to make a pretentious display; attract notice.

   The new doctor cut a swath in the small community.

swath British  

/ sweɪð, swɔːθ /

noun

1. the width of one sweep of a scythe or of the blade of a mowing machine

2. the strip cut by either of these in one course

3. the quantity of cut grass, hay, or similar crop left in one course of such mowing

4. a long narrow strip or belt

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swath More Idioms  

1. see cut a wide swath.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• swaths
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of swath

before 900; Middle English; Old English swæth footprint; cognate with German Shwade

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Explanation

A swath was originally the long narrow space created by a single swing of a scythe in a field of grass or corn as the cutter moved through it. Nowadays it is used more figuratively to mean any kind of path someone makes. The figurative use of swath has nonphysical senses as well, as in the term "a significant swath of the population believes..." Or if someone is trying to attract attention to themselves, or is making quite a public stir, they might be said to be "cutting a swath through the business world" or "cutting a swath on the dance floor." Hopefully, neither of the latter involves using scythes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

swath swaths

Over the last half a century, Chinese spies have taken aim at a wide swath of California targets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2026

A swath of disaffected progressives started tuning in to his daily marathon livestreams, where Piker riffs on the latest batch of headlines with a trademark off-the-cuff panache.

From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2026

Slavery persisted across a large swath of the US until the end of the Civil War in 1865, and photos of Blacks from that time -- even from free, northern states -- are relatively rare.

From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026

Microsoft said Monday it was extending buyout offers to a swath of its workforce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

The drawing was of what seemed to be an ordinary man, with a swath of thick black hair.

From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu

And while it’s still early days for customer adoption of shopping agents, it’s clear that swaths of the population are using chatbots as a starting point in their shopping journey to research and compare products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026

Forest Service has contracted to have large swaths of them removed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Many pointed particularly to an inability to put out the fires that have ravaged vast swaths of Borneo and Sumatra islands since July.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

The options are not attractive: avoid vast swaths of coastline, or live with a poorly understood risk.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

Rural shoppers across large swaths of the country were similarly out of luck when it came to accessing fresh produce.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

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