sweltering
Americanadjective
-
suffering oppressive heat.
-
characterized by oppressive heat; sultry.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sweltering
Explanation
Sweltering means uncomfortably hot. Walking home from work on a sweltering day will leave you sweating. A sweltering summer afternoon might cause you to turn on the air conditioning in your apartment or take a cool shower. To be sweltering is more than merely being hot — it's the kind of damp, intense heat that sends everyone to the pool or beach for some relief. The verb swelter came first, from the now obsolete word swelten, "be faint from heat," rooted in the Old English sweltan, "to die or perish."
Vocabulary lists containing sweltering
The Sweltering Words of Summer
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The Glass Castle
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Term-ometer: Synonyms for "Hot"
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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.
In sweltering heat of 33 degrees at kick-off in Bilbao, Ulster settled well and made a strong start when Nathan Doak's kick wasn't gathered and Juarno Augustus charged into the 22.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
It was a sweltering July afternoon last year and Redmond was sitting on the sofa in her Hollywood home stewing over how AI was nearly putting her out of business.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2026
Mariners sweltering in the Gulf, waiting to pass the Strait of Hormuz, are part of a spider’s web of supply in which pressure at any point can be felt across the globe.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
She grew up on the banks of the Magdalena River, near Colombia's largest oil refinery, in a sweltering region long shaped by oil, conflict and poverty.
From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026
The Great Retreat, as it came to be known, continued for two sweltering summer weeks at the end of August and the beginning of September.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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.
