What does swum mean?
Swum is the past participle of the verb swim, the action of moving through water using the limbs. It appears in forms such as “has swum,” “have swum,” and “had swum,” where it indicates completed swimming. English also has the simple past tense swam, so “she swam yesterday” and “she has swum yesterday” follow different grammatical patterns. Swum can describe recreational swimming, competitive swimming, or movement through water by any means, although it normally refers specifically to swimming with the limbs. The form is recognizable because swim, swam, and swum form one of English’s memorable irregular verb patterns. In everyday speech, “swum” is usually heard as part of a perfect construction rather than as a stand-alone past-tense verb.
verbThe past participle of swim, used with have or be to describe swimming that has happened.
- The past participle of swim, indicating that someone has performed the action of swimming.
"She has swum across the lake several times."
"The children have swum in the sea all morning."
"He was tired after he had swum across the channel."
Swum completes the unusual trio of swim, swam, and swum, giving English a vivid three-part past-tense pattern.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does swum come from?
Swum is the past participle of swim, an Old English verb related to Old Norse swimma and probably also influenced by Middle Dutch swimmen. The modern forms swim, swam, and swum developed through changes in the verb’s vowel and consonant patterns. The word is also cognate with forms in several Germanic languages expressing the action of swimming.
Related word forms
How swum is actually used
Swum is used as the past participle of swim, especially in the constructions have swum, has swum, had swum, and is swum. It is less often used alone as a simple past-tense verb, for which swam is normally preferred.
Easily confused with swum
Swam is the past tense of swim, while swum is the past participle, as in “she swam yesterday” versus “she has swum yesterday.”