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vortex

US/ˈvɔɹtɛks/
nounC2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,984 of 15,258neutral

A vortex is a whirling mass that pulls everything into its centre. A vortex of water, the polar vortex, caught in a vortex.

The polar vortex is a real feature of the winter atmosphere, and when it weakens the cold air it normally holds in spills southwards. It is a doublet of vertex, and the plural is vortices.

NASA Langley Research Center (NASA-LaRC), Edited by Fir0002 · Public domain

Definitions of vortex

  1. 1nounvortexA whirling mass that pulls everything into its centre.C2

    “The water spun into a vortex as it drained out of the bath.”

vortex is a whirl.

Where it comes from

Latin vortex is a variant of vertex, from vertere, to turn.

  1. Latin

    vortex

  2. English, today

    vortex

Learned borrowing from Latin vortex. Latin vortex. a doublet of vertex.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

vortex in the wild

  • The increased temperature difference between the pole and the tropics causes strong winds, and the Coriolis effect causes the vortex to spin up.

    Polar vortex

  • A vortex mixer, or vortexer, is a simple device used commonly in laboratories to mix small vials of liquid.

    Vortex mixer

  • The CL vortex-force mechanism was derived and studied by Sidney Leibovich and Alex D.

    Craik–Leibovich vortex force

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.