swarm

Meaning

1. A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
2. A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.
3. A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.
4. A number of small earthquakes (or other seismic events) occurring, with no clear cause, in a specific area within a relatively short space of time.

flock

crowd around

cluster around

crowd round

teem with

fly around

mass together

be crowded

mass of people

plenty of

troop out

be busy

crawl about

fly about

head towards

Host

large number of

meet together

crowd into

be emaciated

affluxion

community

be plentiful

be congested

be thickly dotted

herd school

mustre

a large group of insects

large mass

move in a crowd

murmuration

swarm over

press on one another

be very talkative

a lot of

be rife

erst

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/swɔɹm/

From Middle English swarm, from Old English swearm (“swarm, multitude”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarm, from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz (“swarm, dizziness”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Swoorm (“swarm”), Dutch zwerm, German Schwarm, Danish sværm, Swedish svärm, Icelandic svarmur (“tumult, swarm”), Latin susurrus (“whispering, humming”), Lithuanian surma (“a pipe”), Russian свире́ль (svirélʹ, “a pipe, reed”). The verb is from Middle English swarmen, swermen, from Old English swierman (“to swarm”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarmijan, from Proto-Germanic *swarmijaną (“to swarm”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots swairm, swerm (“to swarm”), Dutch zwermen, German schwärmen, Danish sværme, Swedish svärma.