as in nerd
a person slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
every time he begged off a night at the pub—saying he had to study—his mates teased him for being a swot
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of swot
Ruby Tandoh, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
The Oxbridge and Ivy League colleges traditionally had disparaging terms for students who worked too hard and devoted themselves too diligently to learning: swot in England, grind in the United States.
—John McIntyre, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 July 2023
So, swot up, then delegate.
—Barnaby Lashbrooke, Forbes, 4 May 2021
The Economist, 13 June 2020
Greenblatt might want to have a chinwag with some of his colleagues in the history department and swot up the biography of someone like Wisconsin’s Robert La Follette, a progressive populist politician perhaps more to his liking.
—Alex Beam, BostonGlobe.com, 2 May 2018
Noun
Nobody talked about the furtive ambition of the swots.
—Ruby Tandoh, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
The Oxbridge and Ivy League colleges traditionally had disparaging terms for students who worked too hard and devoted themselves too diligently to learning: swot in England, grind in the United States.
—John McIntyre, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 July 2023
So, swot up, then delegate.
—Barnaby Lashbrooke, Forbes, 4 May 2021
Verb
Yamada Jun, the IT expert, became the CEO and travelled to Germany to swot up on renewables.
—The Economist, 13 June 2020
Greenblatt might want to have a chinwag with some of his colleagues in the history department and swot up the biography of someone like Wisconsin’s Robert La Follette, a progressive populist politician perhaps more to his liking.
—Alex Beam, BostonGlobe.com, 2 May 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for swot
Noun
-
But singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s 14th album leans into their back-to-basics side with a collection of tunes by other artists, inspired by these lifelong friends’ shared journey as deep record nerds.—
Jon Dolan,
Rolling Stone,
29 Apr. 2026
-
While baseball nerds are busy playing with their analytics, those of us who miss balls to the wall baseball are reminded today that it's been 43 years since Chicago Cubs' Lee Elia let loose with one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, managerial rants in the history of sports.—
Joe Kinsey OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
But the new traffic data the railroads analyzed from all the major freight railroads convinced executives that more job growth is likely.—
Josh Funk,
Chicago Tribune,
30 Apr. 2026
-
BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers.—
BestReviews,
Mercury News,
30 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
See video … ASRA NOMANI — Suspect in WHCD operated and lived in an ecosystem that too him from nerdy geek to attacker.—
,
FOXNews.com,
27 Apr. 2026
-
But Sandy is the sci-fi geek of the family.—
Brian Davids,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The internet deduced that was the reason Megan appeared to be crying in a clip from the end of Saturday’s show.—
Jami Ganz,
New York Daily News,
28 Apr. 2026
-
The experiment’s main goal is to deduce the smallest amount of energy required to produce a neutrino — its resting mass.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
8 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
When scientists initially studied attempts to learn while sleeping, the results seemed promising.—
Shayla Love,
New Yorker,
1 May 2026
-
The coins will be transported to the Coin Cabinet at the Museum of Cultural History, where they will be catalogued and studied for years to come, the museum confirmed.—
Michelle Del Rey,
USA Today,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Enter your email address to find out if your information appears in the leak.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
29 Apr. 2026
-
With the help of Cope’s first love, Lucy, the lawyer is determined to turn every skeleton out of the closet in his search for answers – and to find out whether Camille might still be alive.—
K.J. Yossman,
Variety,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Then be sure to read our guide to photographing shooting stars, along with our picks of the best cameras and lenses for imaging the night sky in 2026.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
2 May 2026
-
The idea was then taken up by other Scottish scholars, including James Frazer, whose widely read compendium The Golden Bough (1890) attempted to establish cross-cultural parallels in mythology.—
Glenn Adamson,
Artforum,
2 May 2026
Verb
-
Senior second baseman Alexis Richter has learned a lot about playing softball from her three older sisters.—
Tony Baranek,
Chicago Tribune,
29 Apr. 2026
-
The wife and mother of two people who died on the Titanic submersible is sharing what she's learned about grief and life after loss.—
Sara Moniuszko,
USA Today,
28 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Swot.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/swot. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
