Switch

How to spell switch

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce switch

What does switch mean?

1. verbTo change from one thing, position, or state to another, or to exchange one thing for another.
2. nounA device for opening or closing an electrical circuit, or for diverting it.
3. nounA slender, flexible rod or twig, especially one used for striking.

Switch in a sentence

• verb

  She decided to switch careers after fifteen years in banking.

• noun

  The light switch is just inside the door on the left.

• noun

  The rider cut a thin switch from the hedge to guide the pony.

• verb

  We can switch seats so you get the window.

• noun

  He flicked the switch and the workshop lights came on.

Where does switch come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word switch first appears in English in the late 1500s with the concrete meaning of a thin, flexible rod or twig, the kind used as a whip; it most likely came from a Low German or Dutch source such as the dialectal swijch, meaning a twig or pliant branch. Because such a rod could be snapped or flicked quickly from one side to another, the word picked up the idea of a sudden change of position. In the nineteenth century this gave rise to the railway sense, where a movable rail diverts a train onto another track, and then to the electrical sense, where a small lever turns a current on or off. From those mechanical meanings the modern figurative verb, to switch one's attention or to switch jobs, developed naturally. The spelling keeps the awkward but regular -tch cluster after a short vowel, the same pattern seen in catch, fetch and pitch.

How the word is built

• switch (single root; from a Germanic word for a thin flexible rod, later applied to a snapping change of position)