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swift

Pronunciation: /swɪft/

The English word “swift” has 11 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Fast; quick; rapid.
  2. Capable of moving at high speeds.
  3. Quick-thinking; bright.

adverb

  1. Swiftly.

noun

  1. A small plain-colored bird of the family Apodidae that resembles a swallow and is noted for its rapid flight.
  2. Any of certain lizards of the genus Sceloporus.
  3. A moth of the family Hepialidae, swift moth, ghost moth.
  4. Any of various fast-flying hesperiid butterflies.
  5. A light, collapsible reel used to hold a hank of yarn in order to wind off skeins or balls.
  6. The main cylinder of a carding-machine.
  7. The current of a stream.

Etymology

From Middle English swift, from Old English swift (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Germanic *swiftaz (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weyp- (“to twist; wind around”). Cognate with Icelandic svipta (“to pull quickly”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”). More at swivel.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.