different between vortex vs swirl

English

Etymology

From Latin vortex.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?v??t?ks/
• (US)

Noun

vortex (plural vortexes or vortices)

1. A whirlwind, whirlpool, or similarly moving matter in the form of a spiral or column.
2. (figuratively) Anything that involves constant violent or chaotic activity around some centre.
   • 2004: the consumer vortex that is East Hampton — The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, p.38
3. (figuratively) Anything that inevitably draws surrounding things into its current.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 1

     In early youth, the living drama acted around me, drew my heart and soul into its vortex.

4. (historical) A supposed collection of particles of very subtle matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or planet; part of a Cartesian theory accounting for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it.
5. (zoology) Any of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera.

Derived terms

Related terms

• vortical
• vorticity

Translations

See also

• eddy
• ley line
• maelstrom

References

• vortex in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• vortex in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

French

Etymology

From Latin vortex

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v??.t?ks/

Noun

vortex m (uncountable)

1. vortex

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?u?or.teks/, [?u??rt??ks?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?vor.teks/, [?v?rt??ks]

Noun

vortex m (genitive vorticis); third declension

1. Archaic form of vertex.

Inflection

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

References

• vortex in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• vortex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• vortex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

English

Etymology

From Middle English swirlen (“to eddy; swirl”). Cognate with Norwegian svirla (“to whirl around; swirl”). Compare also Swedish svirra, Danish svirre, German schwirren.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sw??l/?
• (US) IPA^(key): /sw?rl/
• Rhymes: -??(?)l

Verb

swirl (third-person singular simple present swirls, present participle swirling, simple past and past participle swirled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To twist or whirl, as an eddy.

   I swirled my brush around in the paint.

   • 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago

     The river swirled along.
2. To be arranged in a twist, spiral or whorl.
3. (figuratively) To circulate.
   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, "British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

     Mr. Cameron had a respite Thursday from the negative chatter swirling around him when he appeared outside 10 Downing Street to denounce the murder a day before of a British soldier on a London street.

Derived terms

• swirler

Translations

Noun

swirl (plural swirls)

1. A whirling eddy.
2. A twist or coil of something.
3. (fishing) The upward rushing of a fish through the water to take the bait.

Derived terms

• preswirl
• swirly

Translations