Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: SWALE |
SWALEIntransitive & transitive verb1. To melt and waste away; to singe. See Sweal, v. Noun1. A gutter in a candle. 2. A valley or low place; a tract of low, and usually wet, land; a moor; a fen. |
Date "SWALE" was first used: 1584. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Building | A wide shallow depression in the ground to form a channel for storm water drainage. (references) |
Food & Agriculture | A moist or marshy depression. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deterioration | Run to seed, go to seed, run to waste swale, sweal; lapse, be the worse for; sphacelate: break, break down; spring a leak, crack, start; shrivel; (contract); fade, go off, wither, molder, rot, rankle, decay, go bad; go to decay, fall into decay; " fall into the sear and yellow leaf", rust, crumble, shake; totter, totter to its fall; perish; die. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: SWALE |
| English words defined with "SWALE": Sweal. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Farshot of Moist Swale with Douglas' Brodiaea wildflowers. Credit: John Craig. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | He could not see the base of the tree, for it grew out of a little swale that held water longer than the level places. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "SWALE" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "SWALE" is used about 26 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 100% | 26 | 68,323 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "SWALE": Brompton-on-swale, Morton-on-swale. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
swale | 31 |
drainage swale | 5 |
rosie swale | 4 |
racehorse swale | 2 |
horse swale | 2 |
bio swale | 2 |
borough council swale | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "SWALE"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | drassige laagte. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | swale. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Senke (depression), Mulde (hollow, manger, pan, skip, trough). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | süllyedés (depression, letdown, prolapse, settling, sinking, swag, yield), gödrösödés (pitting), gödör (hole, pit, pot hole, pothole, socket). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | alesway 'swale', campina pantanosa. (various references) низменность (low ground, lowland), болотистая низина. (various references) paular, Cenagal (morass, quag, quagmire). (various references) sumpmark (marsch, Marsh, marshland). (various references) Затінок, Болотиста Низина. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "SWALE": swales. (additional references) | |
| |
"SWALE" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Awale, Awaleh, Awali, Esdale, ewale, Mwale, Salwey, sawel, saw'em, Suwelo, swabe, swade, swail, swaje, swala, swaler, Swaley, swallen, swaller, swanee, swatle, swayle, sweel, swelc, swild, twale, Zwolle. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: wales, weals. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-l-s-w" | |
-1 letter: ales, awes, awls, lase, laws, leas, sale, seal, slaw, slew, waes, wale, weal. | |
-2 letters: ale, als, awe, awl, els, las, law, lea, sae, sal, saw, sea, sel, sew, wae, was. | |
-3 letters: ae, al, as, aw, el, es, la, we. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-l-s-w" | |
+1 letter: awless, swales, walers, walies, warsle, wealds, weasel, whales, wheals. | |
+2 letters: aweless, awnless, bawlers, bewails, byelaws, clawers, dawdles, declaws, dewlaps, knawels, lawines, lawless, lawyers, leeways, sawlike, seafowl, seawall, sewable, shawled, sowable, swaddle, wabbles, waddles, wadmels, waffles, waggles, wailers, waldoes, walkers, wallets, wallies, waltzes, wambles, wangles, warbles, warless, warsled, warsler, warsles, warstle, wastrel, wattles, wayless, wealths, weasels, weasely, whalers, wrassle, wrastle. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Photo Album | 5. Quotations: Fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
