sweltering

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adjective

hot and humid; oppressively sticky

“The day was sweltering, so Lauren put on the shortest pair of shorts she could find and went to get ice-cream with her friend Rob.”

Similar
sweltryhot
UncommonScrabble 14
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Meanings

adjective
  1. hot and humid; oppressively sticky

    The day was sweltering, so Lauren put on the shortest pair of shorts she could find and went to get ice-cream with her friend Rob.

verb
  1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of swelter
nounsweltering (plural swelterings)

plural swelterings

  1. The situation of being or feeling hot and humid.

    March 11 1932, Northrop Frye, notebook It is truly a long way from Augustine's ultra-violet perspicacity to our swelterings in the intolerably sapping infra-red, but we are constantly plunging into deeper and deeper black and may rest our eyes in peace sometime.

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveexcessively hot and humid or marked by sweating and faintness

Similar
sweltryhot
Also see
moistmuggy

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From swelter + -ing.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian зноен
  • зноен (znoen)hot and humid
Catalan xafogós
  • xafogóshot and humid
Chinese Mandarin 悶熱 /闷热的, 闷热的
  • 悶熱 /闷热的 (mēnrè)hot and humid
  • 闷热的 (mēnrè)hot and humid
Dutch bloedheet
  • bloedheethot and humid
Esperanto sufoka
  • sufokahot and humid
Estonian lämbe
  • lämbehot and humid
French étouffant
  • étouffanthot and humid
German drückend heiß, glühend heiß
  • drückend heißhot and humid
  • glühend heißhot and humid
  • verschmachtendhot and humid
Russian знойный
  • знойный (znojnyj)hot and humid
Spanish sofocante, abrasador
  • sofocantehot and humid
  • abrasadorhot and humid
  • bochornosohot and humid
Swedish stekhet
  • stekhethot and humid
Turkish aşırı sıcak, bunaltıcı
  • aşırı sıcakhot and humid
  • bunaltıcıhot and humid
  • çok sıcakhot and humid

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Westerling
Cite this entry
APA

sweltering. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweltering

MLA

“sweltering.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweltering. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sweltering,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweltering.

Source: sweltering on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.