Other forms: spirals, spiraling, spiralling, spiraled, spiralled
A spiral is a line that winds round and round a centre, each turn a little wider than the last. The shell of a snail, the pattern in a cut cinnamon bun, the curl of peel dropping away from an orange.
It works as an adjective without changing shape: a spiral staircase, a spiral notebook with the wire down one side. As a verb it means moving in that winding path — smoke spiralling up from a bonfire, a leaf spiralling down. Then there is the figurative use, loud enough to drown out the rest: prices spiral, debts spiral, a person spirals into panic, and a downward spiral is a bad situation feeding itself. A shape that keeps one width while it climbs, like a spring or a corkscrew, is strictly a helix, but nobody outside a maths class says so. When you meet spiral used about money or mood, expect bad news.
1nounspiralA curve that winds round and round a centre point.
“The shell is a perfect spiral.”
2adjectiveroundWinding round a centre in that way.
“The flat is at the top of a narrow spiral staircase.”
3verbmoveTo move in a winding, circling path.
“Smoke spiralled up from the bonfire.”
4verbincreaseTo increase or get worse quickly and out of control.
“Rents in the city are spiralling.”
5nounsituationA situation that keeps making itself worse.
“Missing one payment started a spiral of debt.”
spiral is a curve.
Spiral reached English from Middle French spirale, on Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spīra. That came from the Greek speira, a wreath, a coil, a twist — a rope wound round on the deck of a ship. The shape was named after something you could pick up and hold.
Ancient Greek
σπεῖρα — wreath, coil, twist
Latin
spīra
Medieval Latin
spiralis
Middle French
spirale
English, today
spiral
From Middle French spirale, from Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spīra, from Ancient Greek σπεῖρα (“wreath, coil, twist”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA