Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Sweeten

Definition: Sweeten

Sweeten

Verb

1. Make sweeter in taste.

2. Make sweeter, more pleasant, or more agreeable; "sweeten a deal".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "sweeten" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Note: Sweeten \Sweet"en\, transitive verb. [imperfect & past participle. Sweetened; Sweetening.]. (Websters 1913)


Synonyms: Sweeten

Synonyms: dulcify (v), dulcorate (v), edulcorate (v). (additional references)
Antonym: sour (v). (additional references)

Top     

Synonyms within Context: Sweeten

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Pain

Make things pleasant, popularize, gild the pill, sugar-coat the pill, sweeten.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top     

Crosswords: Sweeten

English words defined with "sweeten": AddulcecachouEdulcoranthoneyKissing comfitNectarizesaccharify, sugar. (references)
Specialty definitions using "sweeten": SMOKING-PIPE LINER, SMOKING-PIPE MAKER, sorbitol. (references)
Etymologies containing "sweeten": Mulse. (references)

Top     

Modern Usage: Sweeten

DomainUsage

Screenplays

And all the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand! (Macbeth; writing credit: Roman Polanski; William Shakespeare)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Commercial Usage: Sweeten

DomainTitle

Books

  • A Cozy Book of Tea Time Treats: 40 Bite-Size Desserts to Sweeten Your Day (reference)

  • Bonbons to Sweeten Your Daily Life: Wisdom That Works (reference)

  • Chocolate for a Woman's Heart: Stories of Love, Kindness and Compassion to Nourish Your Soul and Sweeten Your Dreams [ABRIDGED] (reference)

  • Let Redpath sweeten it (reference)

  • Life's Little Temptations: 40 Bite-Size Desserts to Sweeten Your Day (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Image Slideshow: Sweeten

Computer Images:
Sweeten

More pictures...

Top     

Familiar Quotations: Sweeten

AuthorQuotation

Christian Nevell Bovee

The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.

Josh Billings

Old maids sweeten their tea with scandal.

Quarles

Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor, and so thy labor sweeten thy rest.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Use in Literature: Sweeten

TitleAuthorQuote

Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck, John

The purple prunes soften and sweeten.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Usage Frequency: Sweeten

"Sweeten" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 73.33% of the time. "Sweeten" is used about 60 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 SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)73.33%4451,500
Lexical Verb (base form)21.67%1397,576
Noun (proper)5%3202,518
                    Total100.00%60N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top     

Name Usage Frequency: Sweeten

The following table summarizes the usage of "sweeten" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified.
NameUsage/GenderUsage per 100
million Persons
Rank in USA
SweetenLast name1,00013,906
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top     

Expressions: Sweeten

Expressions using "sweeten": sweeten tea sweeten toil. Additional references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sweeten

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.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

jodie sweeten

73

madylin sweeten

47

jodi sweeten

18

sweeten

8

sweeten twin

5

jody sweeten

5

sawyer sweeten

4

madilyn sweeten

4

jodie picture sweeten

3

jodie pic sweeten

2

madelyn sweeten

2

full house jodi sweeten

2

condensed milk sweeten

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Modern Translation: Sweeten

Language Translations for "sweeten"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

ëmbëlsoj (candy). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏هدأ (allay, appease, assuage, attemper, becalm, calm, calm down, cool, die down, dust, ease, hush, keep quiet, lull, moderate, mollify, pacify, palliate, placate, quench, quieten, relieve, rest, salve, settle, settle down, simmer, smooth, sober, soothe, stay, steady, still, subside, supple, tranquillize), ‏لطف (affableness, allay, alleviate, amenity, amiability, appease, assuage, attemper, attenuate, benignity, civility, courtesy, ease, extenuate, friendliness, geniality, gentleness, kindness, lighten, mildness, mitigate, moderate, modify, mollify, palliate, politeness, qualify, quell, relax, relieve, smooth, soften, softness, soothe, suavity, temper, tone down, urbanity), ‏حلى (adorn, candy, sugar, sugar coat), ‏سكر (candy, conserve, fluster, get drunk, intoxicant, liquor, sloshed, souse, sugar, take to drink, tank up), ‏طهر (circumcise, decontaminate, depurate, disinfect, exorcise, exorcize, mop up, pureness, purge, purify, rid, sanitize, scour, show, sterilize), ‏جعله أحلى, ‏داهن (adulate, blandish, butter up, cajole, flatter, flattering, sop, sweet talk). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

облекчавам (allay, alleviate, ameliorate, appease, comfort, disburden, disembarrass, ease, facilitate, help, lighten, mitigate, palliate, redress, relieve, soothe, unburden, unload), наторявам (manure, nourish), проветрявам (aerate, air, ventilate, weather), подслаждам (dulcify, honey, season, sugar, sugar coat), изпълвам с благоухание (embalm, perfume, scent), давам рушвет. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

变" (sweetened, sweetening). (various references)

   

Czech

  

zpříjemnit (dulcify), osladit (Mull). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

ملایم کردن (Gentle, Modulate, Soften, Temper), شیرین کردن (Candy, Soften, Sugar), شیرین شدن . (various references)

   

Finnish

  

sulostuttaa, sokeroida (sugar), makeuttaa, imeltää. (various references)

   

French

  

sucrer, soulager, purifier, apaiser, amadouer, édulcorer. (various references)

   

German

  

versüßen (to sweeten), süßen (dulcify, sugar, to dulcify, to sweeten). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

γλυκαίνω. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

למתוק (become sweet), למ'" (give delight), לע"ן (delight, improve, make tender, refine), ל"מתיק (mitigate, modify, mollify, sugar, sugar coat), ל" עים (cause pleasure, make pleasant, please). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

édesedik, édesít (to sugar, to sweeten). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

menggulai (sugar), mempermanis. (various references)

   

Italian

  

zuccherare (sugar), inzuccherare, addolcire (become milder, mollify, soften). (various references)

   

Manx

  

ooraghey (freshen, purify, refection, refresh, refreshing, sweetening), milljaghey (disarm, disarming, sweetening), cur taitnys ayn, cur shugyr er (sugar), cur shugyr ayn. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

eetensway

   

Portuguese

  

tornar mais agradável, purificar (chasten, clarify, clean, cleanse, defecate, depurate, distil, distill, elutriate, fine, purge, purify, rarefy, reconcile, rectify, refine, scrub, wash), pôr-se doce, jogar açúcar em, ficar doce, dulcificar (dulcify, mellow), adocicar, adoçar (blunt, mellow), açucarar. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

potoli (becalm, compromise, dulcify, dull, hush, lighten, lull, mollify, quench, quiet, reassure, relieve, slack, slake, smooth, smooth down, sober, solace, stay, still, subdue, suppress, temper, tranquillize), parfuma (aromatize, embalm, incense, perfume, scent), dezinfecta (decontaminate, deodorize, disinfect, fumigate), înmiresma (embalm, perfume, scent), îndulci (alleviate, break, delight, dulcify, mellow, modify, palliate, satisfy, smooth, soften, sugar, tame). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

подслащивать (dulcify). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

zasladiti (dulcify, sugar coat), zašećeriti (sugar coat). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

endulzar (sugarcoat). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

sockra (sugar), söta. (various references)

   

Thai

  

ทำให้เป็นที่พอใจ (sugar), ทำให้นุ่มนวล, ทำให้รส"ีขึ้น, ทำให้หวาน, หวานขึ้น. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

yumuşamak (let loose, let upon, limber up, mellow, melt, moderate, relax, relent, soften, unbend), tatlandırmak (season), tatlılaştırmak (dulcify, saccharify), tatlılaşmak, şeker koymak. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

ставати солодким, освіжатися (refresh), освіжати (brush up, freshen, freshen up, refect, refresh), підсолоджувати (dulcify). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

pereiddio, melysu. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top     

Ancestral Language Translations: Sweeten

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

condulcabit, condulcabitur, dulcem, dulces, indulcabitur, indulcat, indulcata, obdulcati. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Derivations & Misspellings: Sweeten

Derivations

Words beginning with "sweeten": sweetened, sweetener, sweeteners, sweetening, sweetenings, sweetens. (additional references)

Words ending with "sweeten": oversweeten, presweeten. (additional references)

Words containing "sweeten": oversweetened, oversweetening, oversweetens, presweetened, presweetening, presweetens, unsweetened. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Sweeten" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: lsleten, seaten, segetum, Seiten, setten, Sewestern, sheeeeeen, Smeeton, sowetan, Speeton, sweede, sweeden, sweetey, Sweetlea, swete, Swietenia, Zeiten, zweite. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Top     

Rhyming with "Sweeten"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "sweeten" (pronounced swē"tun)
5-w ē" t u nwheaten.
4-ē" t u nbeaten, eaten, Seton, unbeaten.
3-t u nactin, badminton, batten, begotten, biotin, bitten, Boston, boughten, Bouton, brighten, bulletin, Burton, button, Canton, capstan, captain, carton, certain, charlatan, chieftain, clandestine, cosmopolitan, cotton, craton, curtain, Dalton, dentin, dishearten, enlighten, exoskeleton, fatten, flatten, forgotten, fountain, frighten, frostbitten, gelatin, gluten, gotten, guncotton, handwritten, hearten, heighten, highfalutin, intermountain, intestine, jetton, kindergarten, kitten, lighten, litten, lovastatin, Manhattan, marten, Martin, Melton, metropolitan, misbegotten, mitten, molten, mountain, mutton, nekton, Newton, overwritten, Parton, Patten, phytoplankton, piston, plankton, plantain, platen, pleasing, ponton, predestine, prolactin, puritan, rewritten, rotten, Samaritan, satin, Sexton, shorten, Singleton, skeleton, smitten, spartan, straighten, sultan, tartan, teston, threaten, tighten, Titan, Triton, tungsten, typewritten, unbutton, uncertain, underwritten, unwritten, verboten, wanton, whiten, written.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Top     

Anagrams: Sweeten

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "e-e-e-n-s-t-w"

-1 letter: etwees, newest.

-2 letters: etwee, newts, sente, sweet, teens, tense, tween, weens, weest, weets.

-3 letters: ewes, nest, nets, news, newt, seen, sene, sent, sewn, stew, teen, tees, tens, tews, twee, ween, wees, weet, wens, went, west, wets.

-4 letters: ens, ewe, nee, net, new, see, sen, set, sew, tee, ten, tew, wee, wen, wet.

-5 letters: en, es.

 Words containing the letters "e-e-e-n-s-t-w"
 

+1 letter: sweetens, tweenies, weeniest.

 

+2 letters: sweetened, sweetener, sweetness, weensiest, westerner, wetnesses.

 

+3 letters: enwreathes, eyewitness, newsletter, presweeten, sweeteners, sweetening, treenwares, tweediness, westerners, westernise, westernize.

 

+4 letters: betweenness, interweaves, newsletters, oversweeten, presweetens, sweetenings, sweetnesses, swingletree, unsweetened, westernised, westernises, westernized, westernizes, whitenesses.

 

+5 letters: betweentimes, earthenwares, earwitnesses, empowerments, eyewitnesses, interviewees, interviewers, oversweetens, presweetened, reinterviews, screenwriter, sweatinesses, swingletrees, tweedinesses, waterinesses, wintergreens, wontednesses, wretchedness.

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.

Top     



INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Quotations: Familiar
8. Quotations: Fiction
9. Usage Frequency
10. Names: Frequency
11. Expressions
12. Expressions: Internet
13. Translations: Modern
14. Translations: Ancient
15. Derivations
16. Rhymes
17. Anagrams
18. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.