Swearing

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of swearing, or making an oath. countable, uncountable

    "No man is believed a jot the more for all the asseverations, damnings, and swearings he makes."

  2. 2
    a commitment to tell the truth (especially in a court of law); to lie under oath is to become subject to prosecution for perjury wordnet
  3. 3
    profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of swear form-of, gerund, participle, present

    "Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself."

Synonyms

All synonyms
cursecursingcussexpletiveoathprofanity

Example

More examples

"They were swearing at each other at the top of their voices."

Etymology

From Middle English sweryng; equivalent to swear + -ing.

Related phrases

hard swearingswearing contestswearing-in

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.