Meaning & use
swim
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To move through water by working your arms, legs or fins.
Grammar: Often followed by a place or direction: swim across the lake.
Patterns
- swim across something
- swim to something
- swim with someone
The children swim in the lake every summer.
She swam across the bay in under an hour.
Fish swam beneath the dock.
verbtransitive
To cover a distance or take part in a race by moving through water.
Grammar: Takes an object such as a length or a stroke: swim a mile.
Patterns
- swim a distance
- swim a stroke
He swam fifty laps before breakfast.
She swam the butterfly in the final.
Few people can swim the Channel.
verbintransitivefigurative
To seem to move, spin or blur, often because of dizziness or tears.
Grammar: Usually describes how things appear: my head swam.
Patterns
- swim before someone's eyes
- someone's head swims
The letters swam before her eyes.
His head swam after standing up too fast.
The room swam and then went dark.
nouncountable
A period of swimming, or an act of going into the water to swim.
Grammar: Usually appears in go for a swim or have a swim.
Patterns
- go for a swim
- have a swim
Let's go for a swim before lunch.
After a quick swim, we dried off on the rocks.
He takes a long swim every morning.
Word forms
| third person singular | swims |
|---|---|
| past tense | swam |
| past participle | swum |
| -ing form | swimming |
Common combinations
- swim across
- He swam across the river.
- swim laps
- She swims laps at the pool.
- go for a swim
- We went for a swim after work.
- swim against the tide
- The mayor swam against the tide by opposing the plan.
- learn to swim
- Most children learn to swim at school.
Synonyms and how they differ
- paddle
- Paddle means to move gently in shallow water, often with just the feet, while swim means proper movement through deeper water.
- bathe
- Bathe is the British word for taking a dip in the sea or a river, while swim stresses covering distance or exercise.
- float
- Float means staying on the surface without moving, which is the opposite effort from swimming.
- dip
- A dip is a quick, short swim, usually for refreshment.
Opposites
Word family
- swimmer noun
- a person who swims
- swimming noun
- the sport or activity of swimming
- swimsuit noun
- clothing worn for swimming
- swimmingly adverb
- very easily and well, as in going swimmingly
- swimwear noun
- clothes for swimming
Commonly confused: swim or swum?
swim vs swum
Swum is the past participle used after have, as in I have swum here, while swam is the simple past, as in I swam here yesterday.
Practice
Yesterday she ___ ten laps before school.
Choose one answer.
Swam is the simple past tense of swim. Swum needs have or had before it, and swimmed is not a real form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “swim”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.