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
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
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
Noun
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
Verb
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for swot
Noun
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So no, the nerds aren’t going anywhere.—
Dianna Russini,
New York Times,
13 Sep. 2025
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That’s likely to be some Silicon Valley techno-nerd’s paradise of the future, and it’s probably being built right now.—
John Koetsier,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Once considered a cornerstone of learning, the ability to analyze, evaluate, and discern information has been replaced by an overreliance on quick answers.—
Sixteen Ramos,
USA Today,
10 Sep. 2025
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This article was generated by the Bay Area Home Report Bot, software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a template created by humans.—
Bay Area Home Report,
Mercury News,
10 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Refocusing On Long-Term Results As the marketing pendulum inevitably swings from domination by spreadsheet-wielding geeks to marketing by creative brand-builders, companies will realize that they have been overly focused on short-term results.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
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In one of our conversations, Apatow brought up the episode in which one of the geeks of Freaks and Geeks, Neal Schweiber (played by Samm Levine), confronts his philandering father by telling hostile jokes about him through a ventriloquist puppet.—
Adrienne LaFrance,
The Atlantic,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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There’s one song to deduce each day.—
Kris Holt,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
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Someone will look back on 2025 and pick through the mountain of symphonies and movies and novels and museum exhibits that were being offered this fall and will deduce this was what America and Chicago were thinking in 2025.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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One of those unique risk factors is thought to be the hormone fluctuations of menopause, leading researchers to study whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which can level the hormonal playing field, might help.—
Erica Sloan,
SELF,
15 Sep. 2025
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Acting was a career shift for Tillman, who was a pre-med student in college studying to be an orthopedic surgeon.—
Olivia B. Waxman,
Time,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Users can find out where prices stand in their local area relative to the national average; or look up localities nearby to better understand how prices vary in their region.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
11 Sep. 2025
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Maislin hired a private investigator to find out who had hit the young firefighter.—
Otto Rabe,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The first sentence has something like 31 words and takes a while to say, let alone read and digest.—
John Werner,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
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Keep reading to get the full story on HRT and Alzheimer’s, and learn what this means for you.—
Erica Sloan,
SELF,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The Washington Examiner attended a press conference held by Taiwanese Foreign Minister Chia-lung Lin on Thursday, where the head diplomat expounded upon the lessons learned from observing the violence unfolding in Eastern Europe.—
Timothy Nerozzi,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
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Instead of conquest, the focus was intimacy—feeling the land under your feet, learning animal tracks, listening to the bush itself.—
Daniel Scheffler,
Forbes.com,
12 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Swot.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/swot. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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