swarm

¹swarm

noun \ˈswȯrm\

Definition of SWARM

1

a : a great number of honeybees emigrating together from a hive in company with a queen to start a new colony elsewhere b : a colony of honeybees settled in a hive

2

a : a large number of animate or inanimate things massed together and usually in motion : throng <swarms of sightseers> <a swarm of locusts> <a swarm of meteors> b : a number of similar geological features or phenomena close together in space or time <a swarm of dikes> <an earthquake swarm>

Examples of SWARM

1. <a swarm of tourists descends upon the island every summer>

Origin of SWARM

Middle English, from Old English swearm; akin to Old High German swaram swarm and probably to Latin susurrus hum

First Known Use: before 12th century

Related to SWARM

Synonyms: army, bike [chiefly Scottish], cram, crush, drove, flock, herd, horde, host, legion, mass, mob, multitude, press, rout, scrum, crowd, throng

Related Words: masses, millions, rabble, rabblement, riffraff; gaggle; heap, mountain, pile; jam, logjam

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Other Insect Terms

drone, entomology, gadfly, pismire, proboscis, vespine

Rhymes with SWARM

corm, dorm, form, norm, storm, warm