Sword

Swords are Weapons used to defeat Mobs or players (if multiplayer PvP is on) quicker, but are not required to defeat them. They also can remove several blocks faster than using bare hands (such as leaf blocks), but instead of one use of the Durability Bar, it uses double durability.

Killing big slimes with a sword will also prevent more slimes from spawning.

In The Nether you can find Zombie Pigmen that use Golden Swords

Swords are created with 1 stick and 2 units of a tool material:

The following table summarizes the damage that different quality swords inflict.