The word 'swelled' is a correct word and is commonly used in written English.
It is the past tense of the verb 'swell', which means to become larger or to increase in size. Example: The river swelled after the heavy rain, causing flooding in the nearby towns. In this sentence, 'swelled' is used to describe the river becoming larger and overflowing due to the heavy rain.
It has swelled in size as residents who fled the recent war in the Congo start to return, to take up work in trade, fishing and gold mining, which is beginning to kick off in earnest.
Away from Chibok, the social media campaign to #bringbackourgirls has generated more than one million tweets and swelled into a global outcry, with famous figures including Angelina Jolie, Malala Yousafzai and Michelle Obama joining the calls for Nigeria's government to recover the remaining girls.
Later in the afternoon, the protest swelled to about 1,000 people in Minneapolis, while hundreds more gathered in St Paul, the state's capital.
The delta gradually swelled from tiny backwaters to vast estuaries.
The Green vote increased four-fold nationally, while her own majority swelled from narrow to secure, yet in every interview following her re-election as MP, Caroline Lucas faced the same question: where was the surge?
The last time I was stung by a wasp, I reacted very badly - my tongue swelled up and nearly choked me - so I now take a daily antihistamine during the summer to prevent it happening again.
Four years earlier 8.1 million tuned into election coverage up to midnight, while in 1997 the anticipation of a bloody defeat for the Tories swelled audience numbers to 11 million.
Henson's Twitter following has swelled to 3.3 million, and she has so many fans she's coined a name for them.
Between 1896 and 1898, the population swelled to 40,000, and it was the largest city north of San Francisco.
Two blocks later and the group had swelled to what seemed to be hundreds.
The NHS campaign fuelled an upsurge in mass events by yes activists and supporters, who swelled a series of demonstrations in Glasgow's George Square, and Buchanan Street, where they gathered under the statue of Labour's first first minister, and the father of devolution, Donald Dewar.
