sweven

S1W4E1V4E1N1
/ˈswɛvən/

noun

A dream.

“The Golden Legend And then she said: Sir, hast thou seen the sweven that I have seen?”

OriginMiddle English sweven ← Old English swefn ← Proto-West Germanic *swefn →
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Meanings

nounsweven (plural swevens)

plural swevens

  1. archaicA dream.

    [The queen] went in to the Sultan and assured him that their daughter had suffered during all her wedding-night from swevens and nightmare.

    1885, Sir Richard Burton, transl., The Thousand Nights and One Night
    1 more example

    The kynge with the honderd knyghtes mette a wonder dreme two nyghtes a fore the bataille / that ther blewe a grete wynde & blewe doun her castels and her townes / and after that cam a water and bare hit all awey / Alle that herd of the sweuen said / it was a token of grete batayll

    1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I
  2. archaicA vision.

    The Golden Legend And then she said: Sir, hast thou seen the sweven that I have seen?

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
dream

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*swep-“to sleep”
  2. Proto-Indo-European*swépnos
  3. Proto-Germanic*swefną
  4. Proto-West Germanic*swefn
  5. Old Englishswefn“sleep, dream, vision”
  6. Middle Englishsweven
  7. Englishsweven

From Middle English sweven, from Old English swefn (“sleep, dream, vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *swefn, from Proto-Germanic *swefną, *swefnaz (“sleep”), from Proto-Indo-European *swépnos, *supnós (“dream”), from Proto-Indo-European *swep- (“to sleep”). Cognate with Dutch suf (“drowsy”), Middle High German swēb (“sleep”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål søvn (“sleep”), Faroese svøvnur (“sleep”), Icelandic svefn, svöfn (“sleep; dream”), Norwegian Nynorsk svebn, svemn, svevn, svøbn, svømn, sømn, søvn (“sleep”), Swedish sömn (“sleep”), Latin somnus (“sleep, slumber, drowsiness”), Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna, “sleep; dream”), Persian خواب (x(w)āb), Northern Kurdish xew, Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with sweven

sevenheavenstevendevonelevenEvanlevenleaven9/11chevonfifty-sevenup to elevenWest Devon
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

sweven. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweven

MLA

“sweven.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweven. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sweven,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sweven.

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