swift
adjective
swift
1 American
[swift]
/ swɪft /
adjective
-
swifter,
comparative
-
swiftest
superlative
-
moving or capable of moving with great speed or velocity; fleet; rapid.
a swift ship.
- Synonyms:
- speedy
-
coming, happening, or performed quickly or without delay.
a swift decision.
- Synonyms:
- expeditious
-
quick or prompt to act or respond.
swift to jump to conclusions.
-
Slang. quick to perceive or understand; smart; clever.
You can't cheat him, he's too swift.
adverb
noun
-
swifts
plural
-
any of numerous long-winged, swallowlike birds of the family Apodidae, related to the hummingbirds and noted for their rapid flight.
-
Also called ghost moth. Also called swift moth. any of several brown or gray moths, the males of which are usually white, of the family Hepialidae, noted for rapid flight.
-
an adjustable device upon which a hank of yarn is placed in order to wind off skeins or balls.
-
the main cylinder on a machine for carding flax.
Swift
2
American
[swift]
/ swɪft /
noun
-
Gustavus Franklin, 1839–1903, U.S. meat packer.
-
Jonathan Isaac Bickerstaff, 1667–1745, English satirist and clergyman, born in Ireland.
SWIFT
3
American
[swift]
/ swɪft /
noun
swift
1
British
/ swɪft /
adjective
-
moving or able to move quickly; fast
-
occurring or performed quickly or suddenly; instant
a swift response
-
prompt to act or respond
swift to take revenge
adverb
noun
-
any bird of the families Apodidae and Hemiprocnidae, such as Apus apus ( common swift ) of the Old World: order Apodiformes. They have long narrow wings and spend most of the time on the wing
-
(sometimes capital) a variety of domestic fancy pigeon originating in Egypt and Syria and having an appearance somewhat similar to a swift
-
short for swift moth
-
any of certain North American lizards of the genera Sceloporus and Uta that can run very rapidly: family Iguanidae (iguanas)
-
the main cylinder in a carding machine
-
an expanding circular frame used to hold skeins of silk, wool, etc
Swift
2
British
/ swɪft /
noun
-
Graham Colin. born 1949, English writer: his novels include Waterland (1983), Last Orders (1996), which won the Booker prize, and The Light of Day (2002)
-
Jonathan. 1667–1745, Anglo-Irish satirist and churchman, who became dean of St Patrick's, Dublin, in 1713. His works include A Tale of a Tub (1704) and Gulliver's Travels (1726)
Synonym Usage
See quick.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of swift1
First recorded before 900; Middle English (adjective and adverb), Old English (adjective); akin to Old English swīfan “to revolve,” Old Norse svīfa “to rove”; see swivel
Origin of SWIFT3
First recorded in 1970–75
Explanation
If you were the first one to reach the finish line in gym class, the coach might have called you swift. Swift means quick or fast-moving. A glance, a current, even a decision can be swift. You can use the adjective swift to describe things that move or happen rapidly and smoothly. Deciding to borrow a parent's car without permission could result in swift punishment. Foxes are so swift that if you leave the chicken coop open for a moment, one might slip in. Conversely, if innuendo sails over your head, your friends might say, “You’re not too swift on the uptake, are you?” A swift is also a small bird that looks a lot like a swallow.
Vocabulary lists containing swift
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act III
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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.
See Examples For:
The freshman defensive end tossed aside a San Jose State tackle with one swift move, then steamrolled a running back standing in his way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
"Consumers are suffering, have suffered, and will continue to suffer substantial injury as a result," the complaint states, prompting swift pushback from Amazon.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Growth has been swift: In March, OpenAI said the ad program had reached $100 million in annualized revenue, which companies use to project a full year’s performance based on how something is currently performing.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
Situational Awareness was one of the fastest-growing hedge funds in years before its swift unwind.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
“I dread them as much. They are ruthless as the Cauldron-Born, their strength even greater. They go afoot, yet they are swift, with much endurance. Fatigue, hunger, and thirst mean little to them.”
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is back to studying the universe with two of its three science instruments after plans to raise the spacecraft into a higher orbit were scaled back.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
Earlier this year, Swift and Travis Kelce donated $2 million to the effort.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
Taylor Swift launched a years-long stadium tour nearly two full decades after her first chart-topper.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
In a statement to several media outlets, Taylor Swift said: “A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
Those few black souls lucky enough to get work from Swift and the other meatpackers were good union men, treated as members of the butcher brotherhood.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
While volumes remain relatively small compared to oil or gas trade, the signal is unmistakable: Alternatives to SWIFT, the international payments messaging system, are on the table.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 2, 2025
More than 20 banks in Russia now use China’s version of SWIFT.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 27, 2023
As a workaround to the lack of access to SWIFT, U.N. officials have got U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N to start processing some Russian grain export payments with reassurances from the U.S. government.
From Reuters ● Jul. 13, 2023
The allies have also frozen the assets of individuals and Russian banks, and severely limited Russia’s access to the international payment system, known as SWIFT.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2022
Kok, a Dutch businessman of extreme wealth, was president of a Belgium-based banking company, SWIFT, and was responsible for organizing several international tournaments.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Others have raised environmental concerns over colonies of common swifts nesting in the park.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
She said swifts had been arriving in the UK looking for their nests and she had seen more than 30 swifts flying above the building site.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
Brewer, who has been documenting swifts, said she had previously seen birds entering gaps in the structure and believed several nests were present.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
"This is a structure that wasn't known to exist outside of hummingbirds, but our CT scans revealed that swifts have these vocal folds in the same position," Clarke said.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2024
A few days later the swallows and swifts felt the change and left the Northeast.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
As this technology developed, the photographs became more detailed and the animations swifter and smoother.
From Slate ● May 25, 2026
Calls have also come from the right of the party, including those close to Streeting, for a swifter departure, which would exclude the chance of Burnham standing for the leadership.
From BBC ● May 11, 2026
O’Brien’s rise to Olympian in the two-person bobsled, the second-fastest sliding sport of the Winter Games, has been even swifter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Unfortunately, the market in 2025 was much swifter and harsher toward companies that miss expectations than those that beat, meaning that any excessive optimism could lead to big selloffs.
From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026
The water under the hole ran blacker and swifter, and there was no way I was going to squat.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
They were 45 minutes from another early World Cup exit - their swiftest since 1966 - and national humiliation.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Miguel, posted the swiftest qualifying time, a wind-aided 10.27 — the fastest time in California this year — just minutes after Bakersfield sophomore Jalen Ford won his heat in a wind-aided 10.34.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2024
According to three of the commanders interviewed by The Times, the diplomatic route would be the swiftest way of returning the Israelis who remain in captivity.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2024
On the other hand, the swiftest efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions could limit the ice-free period to the month of September.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 7, 2023
That’s what derailed attempts to domesticate cheetahs, the swiftest of all land animals, despite our strong motivation to do so for thousands of years.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
