Sweep

How to spell sweep

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sweep

What does sweep mean?

1. verbTo clean a surface by brushing away dust or debris, or to move swiftly across an area.
2. nounA broad sweeping movement, range, or a decisive overall win.

Sweep in a sentence

• verb

  He had to sweep the kitchen floor before the guests arrived.

• noun

  The team enjoyed a clean sweep of all five matches this season.

• verb

  Strong winds can sweep leaves into every corner of the yard.

• noun

  With one sweep of her arm she cleared the papers off the desk.

Where does sweep come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word descending from the Middle English verb swepen, which meant to move something away with a brushing or grazing motion. It is closely tied to the Old English swapan, meaning to sweep or swing, and the related noun gesweop for sweepings or rubbish, all rooted in a Germanic family of words about swift, sweeping movement. The same ancestral root also gave English the word swoop, which preserves the idea of moving quickly across a space, and the modern senses of sweep, whether brushing a floor or making a grand arcing gesture, both trace back to that core notion of a continuous arcing motion. The spelling settled with the doubled ee during the Middle English period, which is why it reads phonetically and gives learners few real traps. By Shakespeare's day the word was already being used figuratively for a person or event that carries everything along, much as we still speak of a clean sweep.

How the word is built

• swee- (from Middle English swepen, to move with a brushing motion)
• p