different between swarm vs clutter

English

Etymology

From Middle English swarm, from Old English swearm (“swarm, multitude”), from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz (“swarm, dizziness”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Swoorm (“swarm”), Dutch zwerm, German Schwarm, Danish sværm, Swedish svärm, Icelandic svarmur (“tumult, swarm”), Latin susurrus (“whispering, humming”), Lithuanian surma (“a pipe”), Russian ???????? (svirél?, “a pipe, reed”).

The verb is from Middle English swarmen, swermen, from Old English swierman (“to swarm”), from Proto-Germanic *swarmijan? (“to swarm”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots swairm, swerm (“to swarm”), Dutch zwermen, German schwärmen, Danish sværme, Swedish svärma.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sw??m/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sw??m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Noun

swarm (plural swarms)

1. A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
2. A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.

   a swarm of meteorites

   • those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]

3. (computing) A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.

Derived terms

• aswarm

Translations

Verb

swarm (third-person singular simple present swarms, present participle swarming, simple past and past participle swarmed)

1. (intransitive) To move as a swarm.
2. (intransitive) To teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc.

   • Every place swarming with soldiers.

3. (transitive) To fill a place as a swarm.
4. (transitive) To overwhelm as by an opposing army.
5. To climb by gripping with arms and legs alternately.
   • 1784, William Coxe, Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark

     At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 55

     She called out, and a boy came running along. He swarmed up a tree, and presently threw down a ripe nut. Ata pierced a hole in it, and the doctor took a long, refreshing draught.

6. To breed multitudes.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Anagrams

• warms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• swrame, swarme

Etymology

From Old English swearm, from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swarm/, /sw?rm/

Noun

swarm (plural swarmes)

1. A swarm (large, moving group of bees)
2. (rare) A large group of people.

Derived terms

• swarmen

Descendants

• English: swarm
• Scots: swairm

References

• “swarm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-24.

English

Etymology

From Middle English cloteren (“to form clots; coagulate; heap on”), from clot (“clot”), equivalent to clot +? -er (frequentative suffix). Compare Welsh cludair (“heap, pile”), cludeirio (“to heap”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kl?t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?kl?t?/, [?kl???]
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)

Noun

clutter (countable and uncountable, plural clutters)

1. (uncountable) A confused disordered jumble of things.
2. (uncountable) Background echoes, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.
3. (countable) A group of cats; the collective noun for cats.
   • 2008, John Robert Colombo, The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories, Introduction

     Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.

4. (obsolete) Clatter; confused noise.
   • October 14 1718, John Arbuthnot, letter to Jonathan Swift

     I hardly heard a word of news or politicks, except a little clutter about sending some impertinent presidents du parliament to prison

   • 1835, William Cobbett, John Morgan Cobbett, James Paul Cobbett, Selections from Cobbett's political works (volume 1, page 33)

     It was then you might have heard a clutter: pots, pans and pitchers, mugs, jugs and jordens, all put themselves in motion at once […]

Derived terms

• surface clutter
• volume clutter

Translations

Verb

clutter (third-person singular simple present clutters, present participle cluttering, simple past and past participle cluttered)

1. To fill something with clutter.
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To clot or coagulate, like blood.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

3. To make a confused noise; to bustle.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Goose

     It [the goose] cluttered here, it chuckled there.

4. To utter words hurriedly, especially (but not exclusively) as a speech disorder (compare cluttering).

Translations