Meaning & use
swale
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A shallow, wide ditch or dip in the ground, often planted with grass, built to slow rainwater and let it soak in.
Grammar: Countable: a swale, two swales.
Patterns
- dig a swale
- a swale along something
The landscaper dug a swale along the driveway to catch runoff.
Rain filled the swale and slowly drained into the soil.
Grass in the swale helped filter dirt from the water.
nouncountable
A low, damp or marshy stretch of land lying between higher ground.
Grammar: Describes a natural landscape feature.
Patterns
- a swale between something
Cattle grazed in the swale between the two hills.
Wildflowers grew thick in the damp swale.
The trail dipped into a swale and became muddy.
Word forms
| plural | swales |
|---|
Common combinations
- a grassy swale
- A grassy swale ran along the edge of the parking lot.
- dig a swale
- They dug a swale to protect the garden from flooding.
- a vegetated swale
- A vegetated swale cleans water before it reaches the stream.
- a drainage swale
- The drainage swale carries storm water away from the houses.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ditch
- A ditch is usually narrower, deeper and steep-sided, while a swale is shallow and gently sloped.
- hollow
- A hollow is any low spot in the land, and it need not be built to carry water like a swale.
- gully
- A gully is a channel cut by running water and tends to be steep and eroded, unlike a swale.
Opposites
Word family
- bioswale noun
- a swale planted to filter pollutants from runoff
- swales noun
- the plural form
Commonly confused: swale or swell?
swale vs swell
A swell is a rise or increase, such as ocean waves, while a swale is a low area of land.
Practice
Why might a homeowner build a swale in the yard?
Choose one answer.
A swale is a shallow channel that controls rainwater. The other options have nothing to do with drainage.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “swale”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.