Definition

1. Noun:

   • A large, dense group of insects or other small animals, especially when in motion: A swarm typically refers to a mass of flying or crawling creatures moving together.
   • A large, moving crowd of people: A swarm can describe a large, often chaotic, group of people moving as one body.
   • A large number of similar things massed together: A swarm can be used figuratively for any large, dense collection of objects or phenomena.

2. Verb (intransitive):

   • To move in or form a large, dense group: When creatures or people swarm, they move together in a large, often agitated, mass.
   • To be abundantly filled or crowded; to teem: A place swarming with something is overflowing or densely populated with it.

Examples

• Noun:

  • A swarm of locusts descended on the crops.
  • A swarm of photographers surrounded the celebrity.
  • The telescope captured a swarm of distant stars.

• Verb:

  • Ants began to swarm over the fallen fruit.
  • Fans swarmed around the stage after the concert.
  • The old building swarmed with cockroaches.

Advanced Usage

• "To swarm with": To be overrun or densely populated by.
  • The market swarmed with tourists during the festival.
• "To swarm over": To cover or move over something in a large, dense group.
  • Reporters swarmed over the scene of the announcement.

Variants and Related Words

• Swarming (adj, present participle): The act of forming a swarm; teeming.
  • The swarming bees indicated a new hive location.
• Swarm intelligence (n): A collective behavior observed in decentralized systems like insect colonies.

Synonyms

• Noun: Throng, horde, multitude, cloud, mass.
• Verb: Teem, throng, stream, pour, infest.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Swarm around: To gather and move around someone or something in a dense group.
  • Children swarmed around the ice cream truck.
• Swarm in/into: To enter a place in a large, dense group.
  • Protesters swarmed into the square.

Related Idioms

• A swarm of activity: A situation characterized by intense, bustling activity from many people.
  • The office was a swarm of activity before the deadline.

Noun

1. a group of many things in the air or on the ground
   • a swarm of insects obscured the light
   • clouds of blossoms
   • it discharged a cloud of spores
2. a moving crowd

Verb

1. move in large numbers
   • people were pouring out of the theater
   • beggars pullulated in the plaza
2. be teeming, be abuzz
   • The garden was swarming with bees
   • The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen
   • her mind pullulated with worries