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Sward sprouted from the Old English sweard or swearth, meaning “skin” or “rind.” It was originally used as a term for the skin of the body before being extended to another surface—that of the Earth. The word’s specific grassy sense dates to the 16th century, and lives on today mostly in novels from centuries past, such as Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles: “The sun was so near the ground, and the sward so flat, that the shadows of Clare and Tess would stretch a quarter of a mile ahead of them, like two long fingers pointing afar to where the green alluvial reaches abutted against the sloping sides of the vale.”
Examples of sward in a Sentence
Tim Newcomb, Forbes.com, 7 July 2025
The soft Smyrna rug in the hall yields to the tread like a mossy sward, while a circular art glass window fills the hall with a pleasant subdued light.
—Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 Sep. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Sward.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sward. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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