VORTEX (vortices)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: vortices   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vortex mean? 

• VORTEX (noun)
  The noun VORTEX has 2 senses:

1. the shape of something rotating rapidly

2. a powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides)

  Familiarity information: VORTEX used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VORTEX (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The shape of something rotating rapidly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

convolution; swirl; vortex; whirl

Hypernyms ("vortex" is a kind of...):

round shape (a shape that is curved and without sharp angles)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

maelstrom; vortex; whirlpool

Hypernyms ("vortex" is a kind of...):

current; stream (a steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vortex"):

Charybdis ((Greek mythology) a ship-devouring whirlpool lying on the other side of a narrow strait from Scylla)

 Context examples 

Unlike Jupiter’s GRS, which has been visible for at least 200 years, Neptune’s dark vortices only last a few years.

(Hubble Sees Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm, NASA)

Cassini has observed that this vortex is enriched in trace gases — gases that are otherwise quite rare in Titan's atmosphere.

(Cassini Sees Dramatic Seasonal Changes on Titan, NASA)

Neptune's dark vortices are high-pressure systems and are usually accompanied by bright "companion clouds," which are also now visible on the distant planet.

(Hubble Imagery Confirms New Dark Spot on Neptune, NASA)

The images indicate that the vortices probably develop deeper in Neptune's atmosphere, becoming visible only when the top of the storm reaches higher altitudes.

(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)

This warm vortex sits hundreds of miles above the clouds, in the stratosphere, and reveals an unexpected surprise.

(Saturn's Famous Hexagon May Tower Above the Clouds, NASA)

I hired a boat directly, and we put off to her; and getting through the little vortex of confusion of which she was the centre, went on board.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The divine afflatus usually lasted a week or two, and then she emerged from her 'vortex', hungry, sleepy, cross, or despondent.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Faster and faster it revolved, until its vortex sucked him in and he was flung whirling through black chaos.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

We could hear a sound like the waves upon the beach, long before we came in sight of that mighty multitude, and then at last, on a sudden dip of the road, we saw it lying before us, a whirlpool of humanity with an open vortex in the centre.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This great philosopher freely acknowledged his own mistakes in natural philosophy, because he proceeded in many things upon conjecture, as all men must do; and he found that Gassendi, who had made the doctrine of Epicurus as palatable as he could, and the vortices of Descartes, were equally to be exploded.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)