sweet
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /swiːt/
ipa: /swit/
homophone: suite
rhymes: -iːt
Forms: form: sweeter
form: sweetest
Etymology: From Middle English swete, from Old English swēte (“sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōtī, from Proto-Germanic *swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (“sweet”).
Cognate and synonymous with Scots sweit (“sweet”), North Frisian sweete (“sweet”), Saterland Frisian swäit (“sweet”), West Frisian swiet (“sweet”), Dutch zoet (“sweet”), German Low German sööt (“sweet”), German süß (“sweet”), Danish sød (“sweet”), Swedish söt (“sweet”), Norwegian søt (“sweet”), Icelandic sætur (“sweet”), Latin suāvis, Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú), Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús). Doublet of suave.
Senses: examples: text: a sweet apple
text: A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.
ref: 2018 May 16, Adam Rogers, “The Fundamental Nihilism of Yanny vs. Laurel”, in Wired:
glosses: Tasting of sugars.
examples: text: Sweet wines are better dessert wines.
topics: beverages
food
lifestyle
oenology
wine
glosses: Retaining a portion of sugar.
examples: text: sweet butter
glosses: Not of a salty taste.
examples: text: a sweet scent
text: Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to me, / I will give them all back again.
ref: 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Reaper and the Flowers”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, page 8:
glosses: Of a pleasant smell.
examples: text: sweet milk
glosses: Not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale.
examples: text: a sweet tune
text: Smooth jazz music has sweet drum beats and cymbals!
text: The cicale above in the lime, / And the lizards below in the grass, / Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was, / Listening to my sweet pipings.
ref: a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn of Pan”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, page 169:
text: a voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Ticknor and Fields, page 135:
glosses: Of a pleasant sound.
examples: text: a sweet child
text: It was sweet of her to send some roses for her unwell grandmother.
text: You're so sweet!
text: There's something tragic, but almost pure / Think I could love you, but I'm not sure / There's something wholesome, there's something sweet / Tucked in your eyes that I'd love to meet
ref: 2017 April 13, Mitchy Collins, Samantha Derosa, Christian Medice, “Broken”, in Finding It Hard to Smile, performed by Lovelytheband:
glosses: Of a pleasing disposition.
examples: text: It was sweet of him to help out.
glosses: Of a helpful disposition.
examples: text: sweet gas
text: sweet soil
text: sweet crude oil
topics: chemistry
geography
geology
mineralogy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Free from excessive unwanted substances like acid or sulphur.
examples: text: The new Lexus was a sweet birthday gift.
text: Her crew knew that deep in her heart beat engines fit and able to push her blunt old nose ahead at a sweet fourteen knots, come Hell or high water.
ref: 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 1:
text: 14 November 2014, Steven Haliday, Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero
GORDON Strachan enjoyed the sweetest of his 16 matches in charge of Scotland so far as his team enhanced their prospects of Euro 2016 qualification with a crucial and deserved victory over Republic of Ireland.
glosses: Very pleasing; agreeable.
examples: text: "Visit in two days though," said Tommo. "Hang in there mate, got a joey coming, we'll be sweet then."
ref: 2012, John Hoskison, Inside: One Man's Experience of Prison:
glosses: Doing well; in a good or happy position.
examples: text: The attraction was mutual and instant; they were sweet on one another from first sight.
glosses: Romantically fixated; enamored with; fond of.
raw_tags: followed by on
examples: text: sweet water
text: The white of an egg, or blood mingled with salt water, doth gather the saltness and maketh the water sweeter; this may be by adhesion.
ref: 1627, Francis Bacon, “Sylva Sylvarum: or A Natural History”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, published 1826, page 66:
text: Nothing has been found so effectual for preserving water sweet at sea, during long voyages, as charring the insides of the casks well before they are filled.
ref: 1821, Robert Thomas, The modern practice of physic, page 713:
glosses: Fresh; not salt or brackish.
glosses: Alkaline.
raw_tags: of soil
examples: text: a sweet face
text: a sweet colour or complexion
text: Sweet interchange / Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.
ref: 1667, John Milton, Paradise lost (source), Samuel Simmons, page 278
glosses: Pleasing to the eye; beautiful; mild and attractive; fair.
examples: text: For someone who hadn't seen her only sister in over twenty years, Alice sure took her sweet time.
ref: 2014, Rexanne Becnel, Leaving L.A., page 12:
glosses: An intensifier.
Synonyms: sense: of a taste of sugar
word: saccharine
sense: of a taste of sugar
word: sugary
sense: containing a sweetening ingredient
word: sugared
sense: containing a sweetening ingredient
word: sweetened
sense: not of a salty taste
word: fresh
sense: not of a salty taste
word: unsalty
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: fragrant
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: odoriferous
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: odorous
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: perfumed
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: scented
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: sweet-scented
sense: of a pleasant smell
word: sweet-smelling
sense: not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale
word: fresh
sense: not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale
word: unfermented
sense: not decaying, fermented, rancid, sour, spoiled, or stale
word: wholesome
sense: of a pleasant sound
word: dulcet
sense: of a pleasant sound
word: honeyed
sense: of a pleasant sound
word: mellifluous
sense: of a pleasant sound
word: mellisonant
sense: of a pleasing disposition
word: cute
sense: of a pleasing disposition
word: lovable
sense: of a pleasing disposition
word: pleasant
sense: of a helpful disposition
word: kind
sense: of a helpful disposition
word: gracious
sense: of a helpful disposition
word: helpful
sense: of a helpful disposition
word: sensitive
sense: of a helpful disposition
word: thoughtful
sense: (informal) very pleasing
word: rad
sense: (informal) very pleasing
word: awesome
sense: (informal) very pleasing
word: wicked
word: nectareal
word: nectarean
word: nectarine
word: nectarous
word: sappy
word: sweet
word: sweetsome
Hypernyms: word: gustable
Hyponyms: word: candied
word: chocolaty
word: honied
word: mellaginous
word: melliferous
word: sickly sweet
word: syrupy
Derived terms: bittersweet
boiled sweet
Chinese fermented sweet rice
Chinese sweet fermented rice
eye-sweet
fermented sweet rice
flower-sweet
Guthrie's sweet whiskey
home sweet home
honey-sweet
keep someone sweet
meadowsweet
money won is twice as sweet as money earned
one more time for the sweet souvenir
revenge is sweet
semisweet
semi-sweet
short and sweet
sickeningly sweet
sickly sweet
sickly-sweet
sour-sweet
sticky-sweet
sugar-sweet
sweet 13
sweet 15
sweet 16
sweet 17
sweet acacia
sweet-after-death
sweet alison
sweet almond
sweet alyssum
sweet-amber
sweet and sour
sweet-and-sour
sweet-and-sour sauce
sweet anise
sweet Annie
sweet annie
sweet as
sweet as a nut
sweet as candy
sweet as pie
sweet azalea
sweet ball
sweet balm
sweet band
sweet basil
sweet bay
sweet bean sauce
sweet bells
sweet birch
sweetbread
sweet bread
sweet-breare
sweet-breasted
sweet-briar
sweetbriar
sweet briar
sweet brier
sweet-brier
sweet bursaria
sweet butter
sweet calabash
sweet cassava
sweet cheeks
sweet cherry
sweet chestnut
sweet chocolate
sweet cicely
sweet cider
sweet clover
sweet coltsfoot
sweet corn
sweet-corn
sweetcorn
sweet cream
sweet crude
sweet cup
sweet dreams
sweet elder
sweeten
sweetener
sweet F A
sweet FA
sweet Fanny Adams
sweet fenugreek
sweet fermented rice
sweet fern
sweet fifteen
sweet flag
sweet four o'clock
sweet fuck all
sweet gale
sweet goldenrod
sweet grass
sweetgrass
Sweet Grass County
sweet gum
sweet gum tree
sweet hereafter
Sweet Home
sweet horsemint
sweet iron
sweetish
sweet Jesus
sweet John
sweet Judas
sweetkin
sweet leaf
sweet-leaf
sweet lemon
sweet lime
sweet limetta
sweetly
sweet marjoram
sweet Mary
sweet Mary mother of God
sweet maudlin
sweetmeat
sweet melon
sweet milk
sweet Moses
sweet mother of God
sweet mother of Jesus
sweet mother of Moses
sweet mother of pearl
sweet-Nancy
sweet-natured
sweetness
sweet nothing
sweet nothings
sweet oil
sweet on
sweet orange
sweet osmanthus
sweet pea
sweet pepper
sweet pepperbush
sweet pickle
sweet potato
sweet rice wine
sweet rocket
sweet roll
sweetroot
sweet rush
sweet rye bread
sweets
sweet savage romance
sweet savagery
sweet scabious
sweet-scented joe-pye weed
sweet science
sweet seventeen
sweet shrimp
sweet shrub
sweet sixteen
Sweet Sixteen
sweet-smelling
sweet smell of success
sweet-sop
sweetsop
sweet sorghum
sweet spirits of nitre
sweet-spoken
sweet spot
sweet sultan
sweet summer child
sweet talk
sweet-talk
sweet talker
sweet tea
sweet-tempered
sweet thirteen
sweet thorn
sweet-throated
sweet tooth
sweet-toothed
sweet unicorn plant
sweet vermouth
sweet vernal grass
sweet vetch
sweet violet
sweet water
Sweetwater
sweet wattle
sweet whiskey
sweet william
Sweet William
sweet woodruff
sweet wormwood
sweety
sweet yarrow
sweet young thing
take one's sweet little time
take one's sweet time
take the bitter with the sweet
Thai fermented sweet rice
Thai sweet fermented rice
unsweet
Vietnamese fermented sweet rice
winter sweet
Related terms: word: sweetness