Swore

How to spell swore

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce swore

What does swore mean?

1. verbPast tense of swear: made a solemn promise, oath, or formal declaration.
2. verbPast tense of swear: used offensive or profane language.

Swore in a sentence

• The witness swore to tell the truth before testifying.

• He swore loudly after stubbing his toe on the bed frame.

• She swore that she had locked the door before leaving.

• The driver swore at the traffic during the long commute.

Where does swore come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of 'swear', which comes from the Old English verb swerian, meaning 'to take an oath' or 'to make a solemn declaration'. Its own past form was swor, and that old vowel shift is exactly why we say 'swore' today rather than 'sweared'. The verb belongs to the same Germanic family as the Dutch zweren and the German schwören, all carrying the idea of binding oneself by a sacred promise. For centuries it referred only to oaths sworn before God or in court, and the modern sense of cursing or using foul language grew later from the habit of invoking holy names in anger. Because the word follows the old strong-verb pattern, the spelling traps a writer only at the vowel: the 'o' sound is spelled 'ore', echoing 'wore' and 'bore', not 'oar' or 'oor'.

How the word is built

• Past tense of the strong verb 'swear'; formed by the ancient vowel change (ablaut) from swear to swore, not by adding -ed