Swamp in Scrabble and Meaning

• Finder
• Unscrambler
• Dictionary

Valid words made from Swamp

Results

5-letter words (1 found)

4-letter words (13 found)

3-letter words (15 found)

2-letter words (5 found)

You can make 34 words from swamp according to the Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

Definitions and meaning of swamp

swamp

English

Alternative forms

• swomp (obsolete)

Etymology

Early attestations (starting in 1624) are from North America, but the term was probably in local use in Britain earlier. The etymology is not entirely certain; it is probably a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh”, also “fungus, mushroom”) — from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), from Proto-West Germanic *swamm, from Proto-Germanic *swambaz, *swammaz — and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from either Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”) or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”) (from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”)), both from Proto-West Germanic *sump, from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. *swambaz, *swammaz and *sumpaz are likely related to each other, but it is unclear whether they are of Indo-European origin or are substrate words or wanderworts.

The word has alternatively been suggested to be a borrowing from Dutch zwamp (“swamp, marsh, fen”). Other cognates include Middle Low German swamp (“sponge, mushroom”), Dutch zomp (“swamp, lake, marshy place”), German Low German Sump (“swamp, bog, marsh”), German Sumpf (“swamp”), Swedish sump (“swamp”). Related also to Dutch zwam (“fungus, punk, tinder”), German Schwamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Swedish svamp (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Icelandic svampur, sveppur (“fungus”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌿𐌼𐍃𐌻 (swumsl, “a ditch”). Related to sump, swim.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swɒmp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /swɑmp/
• Rhymes: -ɒmp

Noun

swamp (plural swamps)

1. A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground that is a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals, though is ill- suited for many agricultural purposes (a type of wetland). (Compare marsh, bog, fen.)
   • 1624, John Smith, Virginia IV., page 163:

     Some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but more profitable than hurtfull.
2. (figurative) A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: swampu
• → Dutch: zwamp

Translations

See also

• bog (bogland), bogmire
• marsh (marshland)
• moor (moorland)
• fen (fenland)
• bayou, carr (carrland), everglade (glade), lagg, mangal, mangrove, mire (mireland), morass, moss (UK) (mossland), muskeg (Canada, US), pakihi (NZ), peat bog, peatland, petary, pocosin, quag/quagmire, slack, slough (sloughland), slue, sog, swale, swampland, syrt/syrtis (archaic), wash, wetland
• salt marsh, salina, salting

Verb

swamp (third-person singular simple present swamps, present participle swamping, simple past and past participle swamped)

1. To drench or fill with water.

2. (figurative) To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
3. (figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
4. (Appalachia) To clear (a road or an area) of brush, particularly so as to create a path for loggers to be able to access trees.
   • 1976, Alicia Tyler, “Doin' a man's work”: Logging in central and southern counties between 1918 and 1930, page 26:

     I guess I've done it all. Drove teams, drove grabs (device used to fasten a trail of logs together), swamped (cleared the ground of underbrush and fallen trees for road construction).

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• wamps