swoon
/swun/
swoon is pronounced swoon (/swun/). Swoon refers to the act of fainting or almost fainting, typically from strong emotion, as well as to being deeply affected or enraptured by someone or something. It conveys a sense of dramatic pallor or collapse, often connected with admiration or intense feeling. The term can describe both a physical response and a strong emotional reaction in conversation or writing.
Swoon refers to the act of fainting or almost fainting, typically from strong emotion, as well as to being deeply affected or enraptured by someone or something. It conveys a sense of dramatic pallor or collapse, often connected with admiration or intense feeling. The term can describe both a physical response and a strong emotional reaction in conversation or writing.
"She felt a sudden swoon after hearing the shocking news."
"The actor’s performance was so captivating that the crowd swooned."
"Aromas from the bakery made her swoon with happiness as she tasted the pastry."
Pronounce swoon as /ˈswuːn/. Start with a consonant cluster /sw/ made by bringing the lips into a small rounded shape while releasing air, then glide into a long /uː/ vowel, as in 'food' but slightly more rounded, and finish with an /n/. The primary stress is on the first syllable: SWOON. IPA guide: US/UK/AU share /ˈswuːn/. Mouth: lips rounded to hold the long vowel, jaw slightly lowered, tongue high and back, tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth. You’ll want a smooth, uninterrupted transition from /sw/ to /uː/ to avoid breaking the vowel.
Common errors include shortening the /uː/ to a short /u/ as in 'put' and misplacing the /s/ in a more sibilant or hissy way. Another mistake is adding an extra vowel or consonant after the /n/, like /ˈswuːnɪŋ/ or /ˈswujn/. To correct: keep the /uː/ as a long, tense vowel with the lips rounded, ensure the /s/ is light and rapid at the start, and finish with a clean /n/ without trailing vowel sounds. Practice by holding the /uː/ for a full beat, then glide into /n/ quickly.
In all three, the core is /ˈswuːn/. US tends to have more rhotics and a slight rhotic influence in neighboring vowels, but swoon itself remains non-rhotic. UK English maintains the same /ˈswuːn/ with a clipped onset and a clear long /uː/. Australian English also uses /ˈswuːn/ but can have a marginally higher vowel height and a slightly shorter vowel duration in fast speech. The main variation is in surrounding consonants and rhythm, not the core vowel; the /uː/ tends to remain tense and rounded across these accents.
The difficulty lies in producing a clean, single long /uː/ vowel immediately after the /sw/ cluster without inserting an unintended vowel or breaking the glide. Many speakers gloss the /sw/ cluster into a simpler /sw/ or mispronounce as /swoʊn/ with a slightly different vowel. Focus on maintaining a tight abutted sequence: keep the lips rounded for the /uː/, avoid vowel intrusion, and ensure the /n/ is a light, nasal finish without voicing into the next syllable.
A word-specific tip is to practice the exact sequence /sw/ + /uː/ with no vowel between, followed by the /n/. Use a brief pause after /sw/ and then a strong, elongated /uː/ before closing with /n/. Consider starting with /sw/ in isolation, then merge into /uː/ by rounding the lips and keeping the jaw relaxed, then finish with a crisp /n/ without voice after. This stabilizes the two-syllable-onset pattern for steady, natural swoon.
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Swoon originates from Middle English swoonen, linked to Old English swiwan, meaning to sleep or to swoon. Its sense of fainting likely derives from roots related to dreaming or lying down in a faint state, with Proto-Germanic influences seen in similar terms across Germanic languages. Historically, swoon appeared in literary contexts to describe fainting spells due to emotion, illness, or overwhelming experiences. By the 16th–17th centuries, it broadened to include metaphorical use: to be deeply moved or overwhelmed by beauty, admiration, or sentiment. The word carried connotations of vulnerability and surrender, often used in romantic or melodramatic prose. In modern English, swoon remains tied to both physical fainting and figurative emotional overwhelm, retaining its dramatic nuance while appearing in casual speech and pop culture descriptions of strong feelings. First known use in English literature appears in Middle English writings where characters literally faint from fear, love, or awe, transitioning in later centuries to the idiomatic sense of being emotionally overwhelmed and deeply moved.
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Words that rhyme with "swoon"
-oon sounds
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