Meaning of "sway" in the English dictionary

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD SWAY

Probably from Old Norse sveigja to bend; related to Dutch zwaaien, Low German swājen.

Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.

PRONUNCIATION OF SWAY

sway  [sweɪ]

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF SWAY

Sway is a verb and can also act as a noun.

A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

The verb is the part of the sentence that is conjugated and expresses action and state of being.

See the conjugation of the verb sway in English.

WHAT DOES SWAY MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of sway in the English dictionary

The first definition of sway in the dictionary is to swing or cause to swing to and fro. Other definition of sway is to lean or incline or cause to lean or incline to one side or in different directions in turn. Sway is also to vacillate or cause to vacillate between two or more opinions.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO SWAY

PRESENT

Present

I sway

you sway

he/she/it sways

we sway

you sway

they sway

Present continuous

I am swaying

you are swaying

he/she/it is swaying

we are swaying

you are swaying

they are swaying

Present perfect

I have swayed

you have swayed

he/she/it has swayed

we have swayed

you have swayed

they have swayed

Present perfect continuous

I have been swaying

you have been swaying

he/she/it has been swaying

we have been swaying

you have been swaying

they have been swaying

Present tense is used to refer to circumstances that exist at the present time or over a period that includes the present time. The present perfect refers to past events, although it can be considered to denote primarily the resulting present situation rather than the events themselves.

PAST

Past

I swayed

you swayed

he/she/it swayed

we swayed

you swayed

they swayed

Past continuous

I was swaying

you were swaying

he/she/it was swaying

we were swaying

you were swaying

they were swaying

Past perfect

I had swayed

you had swayed

he/she/it had swayed

we had swayed

you had swayed

they had swayed

Past perfect continuous

I had been swaying

you had been swaying

he/she/it had been swaying

we had been swaying

you had been swaying

they had been swaying

Past tense forms express circumstances existing at some time in the past,

FUTURE

Future

I will sway

you will sway

he/she/it will sway

we will sway

you will sway

they will sway

Future continuous

I will be swaying

you will be swaying

he/she/it will be swaying

we will be swaying

you will be swaying

they will be swaying

Future perfect

I will have swayed

you will have swayed

he/she/it will have swayed

we will have swayed

you will have swayed

they will have swayed

Future perfect continuous

I will have been swaying

you will have been swaying

he/she/it will have been swaying

we will have been swaying

you will have been swaying

they will have been swaying

The future is used to express circumstances that will occur at a later time.

CONDITIONAL

Conditional

I would sway

you would sway

he/she/it would sway

we would sway

you would sway

they would sway

Conditional continuous

I would be swaying

you would be swaying

he/she/it would be swaying

we would be swaying

you would be swaying

they would be swaying

Conditional perfect

I would have sway

you would have sway

he/she/it would have sway

we would have sway

you would have sway

they would have sway

Conditional perfect continuous

I would have been swaying

you would have been swaying

he/she/it would have been swaying

we would have been swaying

you would have been swaying

they would have been swaying

Conditional or "future-in-the-past" tense refers to hypothetical or possible actions.

IMPERATIVE

Imperative

you sway
we let´s sway
you sway

The imperative is used to form commands or requests.

NONFINITE VERB FORMS

Infinitive

to sway

Past participle

swayed

Present Participle

swaying

Infinitive shows the action beyond temporal perspective. The present participle or gerund shows the action during the session. The past participle shows the action after completion.

SYNONYMS OF «SWAY»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «sway» and belong to the same grammatical category.

synonyms of sway

affect · ascendency · authority · bend · clout · command · control · direct · dominate · dominion · govern · government · guide · incline · induce · influence · jurisdiction · lean · lurch · oscillate · persuade · power · predominance · rock · roll · rule · sovereignty · swing · wave · win over

TRANSLATION OF SWAY

Find out the translation of sway to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

The translations of sway from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «sway» in English.

• Translator English - Chinese: 摇摆
• Translator English - Spanish: balancearse
• English: sway
• Translator English - Hindi: बोलबाला
• Translator English - Arabic: يَتَمَايَلُ
• Translator English - Russian: качать
• Translator English - Portuguese: balançar-se
• Translator English - Bengali: দোল
• Translator English - French: balancer
• Translator English - Malay: Bergoyang
• Translator English - German: schwanken
• Translator English - Japanese: ゆすぶる
• Translator English - Korean: 전후(좌우)로 흔들리다
• Translator English - Javanese: Sway
• Translator English - Vietnamese: đu đưa
• Translator English - Tamil: ஸ்வே
• Translator English - Marathi: बोलणे
• Translator English - Turkish: sallanma
• Translator English - Italian: oscillare
• Translator English - Polish: zakołysać (się)
• Translator English - Ukrainian: коливатися
• Translator English - Romanian: a se balansa
• Translator English - Greek: ταλαντεύομαι
• Translator English - Afrikaans: swaai
• Translator English - Swedish: svaja
• Translator English - Norwegian: svaie

10 QUOTES WITH «SWAY»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word sway.

1

Robert G. Allen

Don't let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you're crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you're lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you're greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn't understand.

2

Nicholson Baker

Until a friend or relative has applied a particular proverb to your own life, or until you've watched him apply the proverb to his own life, it has no power to sway you.

3

Alan Ball

'Six Feet Under' was about repressing our deepest, most primal impulses, and 'True Blood' is about giving full sway to them all the time. In a way they are like yin and yang.

4

Italo Calvino

A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present that is totally incompatible with it holds sway.

5

Emily Carr

Trees love to toss and sway; they make such happy noises.

6

Carol P. Christ

Beliefs and values that have held sway for thousands of years will be questioned as never before.

7

Bob Ehrlich

Leaders do not sway with the polls. Instead, they sway the polls through their own words and actions.

8

Barry Eisler

It would be awesome to be so impressive that we could sway people to our way of thinking just by declaiming our thoughts, but probably most of us lack such gravitas. Luckily, there's something even better: evidence, logic, and argument.

9

Shereen El Feki

The patriarchy is alive and well in Egypt and the wider Arab world. Just because we got rid of the father of the nation in Egypt or Tunisia, Mubarak or Ben Ali, and in a number of other countries, does not mean that the father of the family does not still hold sway.

10

Todd Gitlin

So every day I'm mindful as I watch the Bush crowd extend their sway into policies of every imaginable variety, and over almost every square foot of earth, that the control of the American state is a matter of urgency.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «SWAY»

Discover the use of sway in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to sway and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour

Discover the answers in Sway. We all believe we are rational beings, yet the truth is that we're much more prone to irrational behaviour than we realise or like to admit. In this compelling book, Ori and Rom Brafman reveal why.

Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman, 2010

Translation and the Problem of Sway

Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session

Douglas Robinson, 2011

Stack and Sway: The New Science of Jury Consulting

This book will reveal the "tricks of the trade" and explore the many ways in which trial consultants have infiltrated the courtroom.

Neil J. Kressel, Dorit F. Kressel, 2004

Sway of the Ottoman Empire on English Identity in the Long ...

By focusing on eighteenth-century English textual representations of the Ottomans, we can observe the turning point in public perceptions, the moments when English subjects began to believe British imperial power was a reality rather than ...

Emily Kugler, 2012

Sway

Zachary Lazar. Brian off to the side—silent, obedient, lost. They all knew not to look at him, though every time they turned around they must have seen him. It was almost five AM when the driver dropped Anger back at his flat. It was a small,  ...

Zachary Lazar, 2011

Analytical Methods in Structural Engineering

7.2 FRAMES WITHOUT SIDE SWAY The two fundamental formulae of Kloucek's distribution of deformation method are now derived. Frames without side sway are considered first. For the sign convention used, see Section 1.9. Needless to ...

Sarawar Alam Raz, 2001

Designers' Handbook to Eurocode 4: 1. Design of composite ...

A sway frame is one in which account needs to be taken of additional internal moments and forces arising from horizontal displacements of the nodes. The rules given in Eurocode 3 to classify an unbraced frame as sway or non-sway depend ...

Roger Paul Johnson, D. Anderson, 1993

How to Modify Your Jeep Chassis and Suspension for Offroad Use

Due to their live axles and coil springs, newer Jeep vehicles have greater potential for suspension flex than most of their competition. To keep supple Jeep suspensions controllable, however, engineers have fit large sway bars to both the front ...

Jp Magazine, JP Magazine Editors, 2004

Sensory-related Changes in Two-segment Dynamics on a ...

(2004); 92(4): 2368-79 Introduction A common experimental technique in the postural control literature is to remove or at least attenuate a particular sensory modality and measure how this changes sway behavior. Such changes can then be ...

Robert A. Creath, 2008

Better Eyesight: The Complete Magazines of William H. Bates

THE SWAY By W. H. Bates, M.D. When one imagines stationary objects to be moving in the same or opposite direction to the movement of the head or eyes when both heels are resting on the floor, it is called the sway. When both heels are ...

Thomas R. Quackenbush, 2000

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «SWAY»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term sway is used in the context of the following news items.

Why you should try the Microsoft Sway presentation app right now

That's why, when I heard about the Microsoft Sway app, I had to give it a try. I'm already a big fan of presentation tools like Canva and Visme, but there's ... «Computerworld, Jun 15»

Microsoft's Sway gains legitimacy with Windows 10 plans, iPad app

Joining the ranks of other Windows 10 universal apps this summer will be Microsoft's lightweight content-creation tool, Sway. Before that, however, it's making ... «PCWorld, Jun 15»

China busts protest organizers who tried to sway court cases

BEIJING Police in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong have busted a group it said organized mass protests in an attempt to sway court cases and ... «Reuters, Jun 15»

Microsoft's Sway joins Office 365 with new languages and features …

Microsoft announced today that it's integrating its flexible multimedia content publishing tool, Sway, into its Office 365 productivity suite. The app has also been ... «The Next Web, May 15»

Office Sway is Coming to Office 365

Microsoft's experimental new Office solution, Office Sway, is apparently useful enough to warrant inclusion in Office 365: the software giant announced at its ... «Thurrott.com, May 15»

Mo'Nique Fires Back at 'Empire' Creator Lee Daniels, Produces …

Mo'Nique told host Sway Calloway that last year, “Empire” executive producer and writer Lee Daniels called her saying, “You got the role, but you know, there's ... «TheWrap, Apr 15»

Are Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Meryl Davis Reuniting?

The pair, who scored the top prize on Dancing with the Stars in 2014, will be reuniting at his upcoming dance extravaganza, SWAY: A Dance Trilogy, on June 5 ... «People Magazine, Apr 15»

Microsoft's Sway publishing app now lets multiple users edit …

Editing documents in Microsoft's Sway app is about to get a bit more friendly. An update lets you edit you create and edit content with friends and team members. «The Next Web, Apr 15»

Nissan Sway Concept Sets The Look For Future Small Cars—And …

The Nissan Sway concept, shown this past week at the Geneva Motor Show, consolidates some of Nissan's design themes into a single expression that's ... «Green Car Reports, Mar 15»

Nissan's Sway is a Micra from the future

Okay, hands up, who upset the Micra? So long a bastion of the bug-eyed, cutesy coochie-coo, Nissan's supermini has got itself all angry and arch-backed. «Top Gear, Mar 15»