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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Sure, there will always be some people who care, just as today there are nerds like me willing to debate the merits of writing for the Z80 versus the 6502 8-bit CPUs.—
Stephen Cass,
IEEE Spectrum,
23 Sep. 2025
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With the help of her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowan), boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich), and cine-literate nerds Randy (Jamie Kennedy) and Stu (Matthew Lillard), Sidney sets out to determine who’s behind the mask.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
21 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Impact Social analyzed social media discussion about each candidate in the race, which revealed that Spanberger has a net sentiment of -28, while Earle-Sears’ sentiment is +18.—
Martha McHardy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
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At Free Float Analytics, an independent research firm that studies boards and executive leaders, analysts Matt Moscardi and Damion Rallis have also analyzed women in the C-suite and on the boards of the many companies going public this year.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The air is getting chilly, the leaves are starting to turn, and Oscar geeks are analyzing the buzz out of Venice, Telluride, and Toronto like tea leaves at the bottom of a mug — that’s right, Oscar season is here.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
27 Sep. 2025
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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
Verb
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There’s one song to deduce each day.—
Kris Holt,
Forbes.com,
18 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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But those who study the stars say this is a fact long known by ancient astronomers, and the disconnect is essentially an intentional feature of the zodiac, not a bug.—
N'dea Yancey-Bragg,
USA Today,
28 Sep. 2025
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Advertisement You were born in China and studied at Tsinghua and then Stanford and then worked in Silicon Valley.—
Charlie Campbell,
Time,
28 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Read on to find out who earned that infamous identifier.—
Anthony Robledo,
USA Today,
25 Sep. 2025
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As the mysteries of the show unfold, Alex teams up with two new teen charges at Tall Pines, Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lynd), to find out what’s really going on.—
Erin Qualey,
Vulture,
25 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Its 93-page deregulatory manifesto reads like a wish list for turning passengers into powerless customers.—
Christopher Elliott,
USA Today,
29 Sep. 2025
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Boise State sacked Swann five times, and cornerback A’Marion McCoy victimized him with the first pick-six, reading a pass to the right flat perfectly to intercept it and returning it 26 yards untouched for a touchdown in the first half.—
Jim Keyser,
Idaho Statesman,
28 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Police tracked Travis Decker's truck and learned the vehicle had traveled west on Highway 2 from Wenatchee on May 30.—
Natalie Neysa Alund,
USA Today,
26 Sep. 2025
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Once the parents open the account, the teen can learn how to invest firsthand by managing the account, along with their parents' oversight.—
Kelsey Neubauer,
CNBC,
25 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Swot.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/swot. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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