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View synonyms for vortex

vortex

[ vawr-teks ]

noun

, plural vor·ti·ces [vawr, -t, uh, -seez], vor·tex·es.
  1. a whirling mass of water, especially one in which a force of suction operates, as a whirlpool.
  2. a whirling mass of air, especially one in the form of a visible column or spiral, as a tornado. polar vortex.
  3. a whirling mass of fire, flame, etc.
  4. a state of affairs likened to a whirlpool for violent activity, irresistible force, etc.
  5. something regarded as drawing into its powerful current everything that surrounds it:

    the vortex of war.

  6. (in Cartesian philosophy) a rapid rotatory movement of cosmic matter about a center, regarded as accounting for the origin or phenomena of bodies or systems of bodies in space.


vortex

/ ˈvɔːtɛks /

noun

  1. a whirling mass or rotary motion in a liquid, gas, flame, etc, such as the spiralling movement of water around a whirlpool
  2. any activity, situation, or way of life regarded as irresistibly engulfing


vortex

/ vôrtĕks′ /

, Plural vortexes vôrtĭ-sēz′

  1. A circular, spiral, or helical motion in a fluid (such as a gas) or the fluid in such a motion. A vortex often forms around areas of low pressure and attracts the fluid (and the objects moving within it) toward its center. Tornados are examples of vortexes; vortexes that form around flying objects are a source of turbulence and drag.
  2. See also eddy


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Derived Forms

  • ˈvortical, adjective
  • ˈvortically, adverb

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Word History and Origins

Origin of vortex1

First recorded in 1645–55; from Latin, variant of vertex vertex

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Word History and Origins

Origin of vortex1

C17: from Latin: a whirlpool; variant of vertex

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Example Sentences

The most prominent breakthrough involves proving a fundamental new law governing the tornado-like tubes of currents known as vortices.

Doing so would be crucial to settling long-standing questions about a fundamental property of vortices called helicity.

Yet such a conservation law would be immensely useful to meteorologists and others who deal with vortices — that same wide spectrum of researchers who deal with turbulence.

Making a tornado-like vortex in water is easy — anyone can do it with a soda bottle.

It’s like building the plane as you’re trying to fly it in gale-force winds of a pandemic vortex.

Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon labels the show a “crass stunt” on a “bottom-feeding vortex of sadness network.”

Yet not everyone is caught up this vortex of paralysis and resentment.

She would leave every day of shooting during the polar vortex just grinning from ear-to-ear.

No, that would be Baia, a popular Roman resort once described by Seneca the Younger as a “vortex of luxury” (sign me up).

Undeterred by the crippling polar vortex that's left heaps of snow lying unceremoniously at every turn.

With a gasp she felt herself falling straight down through a swirling vortex of sensation, to the very sand-bed of the stream.

He had now come to the verge of the whirlpool of destruction, and, in a frenzied moment, he threw himself into the awful vortex!

"She dies in a flurry," said Tom, casting his eyes at the little vortex into which the boat was then entering.

It was a narrow, sharp rock, that jutted out about two feet from the bank, quite close to the vortex of the whirlpool.

Up from the horizon they would mount, forming a vortex overhead, soundless within the silence of the ether.

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Vorstervortex drag