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
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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
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Needless to say, so is every music nerd on the internet considering the band’s most recent album of experimental glitch rap, Year of the Snitch, came out way back in 2018.—
Nina Corcoran,
Pitchfork,
23 Mar. 2026
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But 15-year-old high school speech and debate nerds would catch it right away.—
Edward Lotterman,
Twin Cities,
22 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The researchers spent almost two years analyzing the drone footage, applying machine learning in combination with good, old-fashioned field biology.—
Elizabeth Kolbert,
New Yorker,
26 Mar. 2026
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The watches underwent 25 days of scrutiny there, analyzed via a new acoustic testing method that recorded every sound emitting from the timepiece to track irregularities, temperature sensitivities, and more in the name of all things precision.—
Nicole Hoey,
Robb Report,
26 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Segel makes Dan a bitterly perceptive geek, out of his depth but eager to prove himself, while Weaving invests Lisa with a snappishness that only camouflages her pain.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
15 Mar. 2026
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Such comes with a 12-game win streak and computer numbers that make even the geeks party on Broadway.—
Noah White,
Miami Herald,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In the ’90s, Kay correctly deduced that the elusive serial killer was Roy McCorckle, a 9-1-1 dispatcher who had answered all of the calls of his future female murder victims.—
Max Gao,
HollywoodReporter,
16 Mar. 2026
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Given toads held special significance of toads in many southwestern Chinese cultures, archaeologists had to deduce that the drum carried not only music, but deeper messages and meanings.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
15 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Several other states are in the process of setting up similar programs, often sending therapists and academics to Orlando to study UCF Restores’ process.—
Krys Fluker,
The Orlando Sentinel,
26 Mar. 2026
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Dana Calacci, who studies the social impact of AI at Pennsylvania State University and wasn’t involved in the new research, has found that sycophancy tends to get worse the longer users interact with the model.—
Allison Parshall,
Scientific American,
26 Mar. 2026
Verb
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This week, find out how AI companies have bolstered the fortunes of New York City’s office market.—
Christine Maurus,
Bloomberg,
25 Mar. 2026
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To find out more about the opulent saloon, check out the full story here.—
Bryan Hood,
Robb Report,
25 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The young girl is reading at a 12th-grade level and mastering math concepts such as fractions, decimals and even exponents.—
Jasmine Viel,
CBS News,
28 Mar. 2026
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With read and write speeds of up to 535MB and 350MB, respectively, this SSD is ideal for the typical PC build.—
George Yang,
PC Magazine,
28 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In the era of AI, the notion of learning something for yourself is a quiet, internal act of rebellion against a world that seems to be flowing in the wrong direction.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
25 Mar. 2026
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As per the researchers, the device learns how your specific hand moves and then instantly tells a robot or a computer game to mirror those exact motions.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
25 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Swot.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/swot. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.
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