swell

Fetched 2026-11-03 (cache).

Synonyms: dwell, shell, well, spell, swill, smell, sell, snell, stell, skell, sweal

Antonyms: dwell, shell, well, spell, swill, smell, sell, snell, stell, skell, sweal

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Verb

1. To become larger, fuller, or rounder, or expand in size or shape, usually as a result of pressure from within.
   • My ankles had swelled in the heat.
2. To cause to become bigger.
   • Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
3. To grow gradually in force or loudness.
   • The organ music swelled.
4. To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.
5. To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
   • to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
6. To be raised to arrogance.
7. To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
8. To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
   • swelling words a swelling style
9. To protuberate; to bulge out.
   • A cask swells in the middle.

Noun

1. The act of swelling; increase in size.
2. A bulge or protuberance.
3. Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
4. A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
   • the heave of a heavy ocean swell
5. A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
6. A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
7. A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
8. A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
9. An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle.
10. A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant.
11. A person of high social standing; an important person.
12. The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

Adjective

1. Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.
2. Excellent.

Adverb

1. Very well.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.