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View synonyms for sweeping

sweeping

[ swee-ping ]

adjective

  1. of wide range or scope.

    Synonyms: comprehensive, broad, extensive

  2. moving or passing about over a wide area:

    a sweeping glance.

  3. moving, driving, or passing steadily and forcibly on.
  4. (of the outcome of a contest) decisive; overwhelming; complete:

    a sweeping victory.



noun

  1. the act of a person or thing that sweeps. sweeps. sweep.
  2. sweepings, matter swept swept sweep out or up, as dust, refuse, etc.

sweeping

/ ˈswiːpɪŋ /

adjective

  1. comprehensive and wide-ranging

    sweeping reforms

  2. indiscriminate or without reservations

    sweeping statements

  3. decisive or overwhelming

    a sweeping victory

  4. taking in a wide area

    a sweeping glance

  5. driving steadily onwards, esp over a large area

    a sweeping attack

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • ˈsweepingly, adverb
  • ˈsweepingness, noun
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Other Words From

  • sweeping·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of sweeping1

First recorded in 1470–80; sweep 1 + -ing 2, -ing 1
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Example Sentences

These sweeping observations are, disappointingly, the most thorough analysis Ehrlich provides on climate change as a whole.

The big influencers on state privacy bills are Europe’s sweeping General Data Protection Regulation and California’s now-strengthened privacy law.

From Digiday

It’s critical that advertisers take their exclusions seriously and understand what the implications of broad-sweeping exclusions can mean for their brands and their metrics.

The sweeping social and economic transformation that scientists say is needed to attack the problem will require a global effort.

The distribution of funding for health care providers is just one example of complications with the sweeping $2 trillion CARES Act.

Two years ago in Michigan, she oversaw AFP operations to help the Republican-controlled legislature pass sweeping anti-union laws.

In 1695, still under an imposed silence, she died in a plague sweeping the capital.

The classic film that opens with a tornado sweeping through a Kansas farm made its debut 75 years ago in 1939.

These tensions run throughout the conference, but also throughout the “mindfulness” movement that is now sweeping America.

As the Ebola epidemic began sweeping through the region, fear and mistrust of the health workers in West Point escalated.

"Yes, Alessandro," she answered faintly, the gusts sweeping her voice like a distant echo past him.

He stood aside, and bending from the waist he made a sweeping gesture towards the door with the hand that held his hat.

“Yes; that would be indispensible,” said the baron, whose eyes were sweeping the room from corner to corner, fiercely and swiftly.

She did shout for joy, as with a sweeping stroke or two she lifted her body to the surface of the water.

The wave of religious fanaticism sweeping over the land might recede as rapidly as it had risen.

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sweep handsweepings