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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Fortunately for Rake, he got paired with a true research nerd.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
8 Mar. 2026
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Computer nerds who’ve never left their basements and mama’s cooking are trying, and have taken over the sport with useless numbers, or analytics.—
Nick Canepa,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In a study published today in Frontiers in Earth Science, the researchers analyzed a nearly 32-feet-long (10 meters) ice core containing atmospheric records spanning the Roman empire up to the mid-17th century.—
Nidhi Sharma,
Popular Science,
13 Mar. 2026
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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,
12 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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At one, Bailey fully flashed back to the wedding, but the secretary at the parish claimed they were closed for the football season in 2011 (this year was deduced because Bailey’s mother Olivia died in 2012).—
Dessi Gomez,
Deadline,
20 Feb. 2026
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Robinson’s attorneys have ramped up claims of bias as the case has advanced, even accusing news outlets of using lip readers to deduce what the defendant is whispering to his attorneys during court hearings.—
Matthew Brown,
Chicago Tribune,
4 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Around the same time, researchers at Johns Hopkins gave volunteers psilocybin, the active component in hallucinogenic mushrooms, to study its psychological effects.—
Clayton Dalton,
New Yorker,
13 Mar. 2026
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Recovered in 2015, the ship was identified and studied through the Slave Wrecks Project, an international network of institutions that confirmed it was associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
13 Mar. 2026
Verb
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When the publication of his article is followed by the suspicious suicide of Dale Washberg, Lee follows a trail of breadcrumbs to find out the truth.—
Ethan Shanfeld,
Variety,
11 Mar. 2026
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The people who quit at year two never find out what year five would have delivered.—
Brendan Keegan,
Rolling Stone,
11 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Questions and comments will be moderated, read, and answered as time allows.—
Carolyn Hax,
Washington Post,
27 Mar. 2026
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So if a person thinks about moving their hand, the device reads those brain signals and turns them into an actual movement.—
Christopher McFadden,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Further on the tech front, OpenAI is focusing employee and investor attention on its enterprise business as the artificial intelligence startup gears up to go public, potentially by the end of the year, CNBC has learned.—
Lim Hui Jie,
CNBC,
18 Mar. 2026
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Investigators learned on Tuesday that Lickhart had died from her injuries, and homicide detectives took over the case, DiMartino said.—
Nathan Pilling
March 17,
Kansas City Star,
18 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Swot.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/swot. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
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