swollen
Americanverb
adjective
-
tumid or enlarged by or as if by swelling
-
turgid or bombastic
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swollen
First recorded in 1300–50, for the adjective
Explanation
When something's swollen, it's puffed up, rounded, and misshapen. If you've sprained your ankle, it's likely to be swollen and may look more like a grapefruit than the body part you know and love. When something swells up, it's swollen, and that can be anything from knees and glands to pregnant bellies. You can also use swollen more poetically: you can describe someone with a big ego as having a swollen head. A stormy ocean with big, angry waves is a swollen sea. And a state with out-of-control spending has a swollen budget, inflated by special projects and other expenses that there’s not enough money to pay for.
Vocabulary lists containing swollen
Beowulf vocabulary
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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List 9
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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.
Another concertgoer wrote that Sykes’ face was visibly swollen by the end of the show, and additional videos from the concert show him performing with a fresh welt near his eye.
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026
The budget deficit has already swollen close to the planned target for the whole year.
From BBC • May 8, 2026
"He had a lot of edema, his face was very swollen, there was edema on his limbs, and a globular abdomen, like a balloon."
From Barron's • Apr. 23, 2026
"Cells lacking the system lost their normal rectangular-like cell shape and instead became round and swollen," Springstein explains.
From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026
“It wasn’t easy fetching the things for supper, what with my knees and swollen feet. I had to resort to drastic measures to keep the house fed.”
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
