swarming

/ˈswɔːrmɪŋ/

Say it: SWORM-ing

1. verb Moving in or forming a large, dense, and often chaotic group.
Bees were swarming around the fallen honeycomb.
2. adjective Completely filled or crowded with a large number of moving things.
The town square was swarming with tourists during the festival.
3. noun The act of a large group, especially bees, moving together to establish a new colony.
The beekeeper recognized the signs of swarming and prepared a new hive.
🇪🇸 pululando

📖 Seen in the wild

I felt them simply swarming in me, those opposite elements.
collected by @missha

✏️ swarming in a sentence

Reporters were swarming the politician as she exited her car.
My inbox is swarming with unread emails after the long weekend.
The kids came swarming out of the school building at the final bell.
Ancient texts describe fields swarming with locusts that blotted out the sun.
The website was swarming with bots after the controversial article was published.
As soon as the food was served, ants started swarming the picnic blanket.

🔁 Synonyms & antonyms

teeming thronging crawling flocking overrunning infesting inundating pouring

teeming · suggests being so full that things are overflowing, emphasizing density over movement.

thronging · almost exclusively used for people, implying a large, dense crowd pushing together.

crawling · implies slower movement and often has a negative or creepy connotation.

flocking · suggests movement together in a somewhat organized group, typically used for birds or people with a shared purpose.

Opposites: dispersing, scattering, retreating, trickling

🌱 Where it comes from

The word 'swarming' comes from the Old English 'swearm', which specifically referred to a cluster of bees. Its roots are shared with German 'Schwarm' and Dutch 'zwerm'. Over time, its meaning expanded from the specific behavior of bees to describe any large, dense, and actively moving group, whether of insects, animals, or people.

🧩 How it's used

Common patterns:

swarming with touristsswarming with insectsa swarming massswarming around the hiveswarming into the stadium

'Swarming' often carries a connotation of chaos or being overwhelmed, suggesting a lack of individual control within the group. While its origin is with insects, it is very common to use for people, but this can imply they are acting like a mindless mass. Be mindful of this subtle negative undertone when describing crowds, as it is distinct from more neutral words like 'gathering' or 'congregating'.

Word family: swarm

💬 Quick answers

What does swarming mean?

Swarming describes the movement of a large, dense group of insects, animals, or people, often in a chaotic or overwhelming way. It can be a verb for the action or an adjective for a place crowded with such a group.

What is the difference between swarming and teeming?

Swarming emphasizes the collective, often chaotic movement of a group. Teeming focuses more on the state of being completely full or overflowing, suggesting abundance and density rather than coordinated motion.

Can you use swarming to describe people?

Yes, it is very common to say a place is 'swarming with people'. However, it can imply the crowd is chaotic or acting like a single mass, which can sometimes have a slightly negative or dehumanizing feel.

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