gyre.
A swirling vortex.
Meaning & usage
A swirling vortex.
A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn.
Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”).
An ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner, especially one that is large-scale and observed in a major ocean.
Most ships that tried to cross the Pacific in the past would get stuck in the gyres and never make it out.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Latin gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle; ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”). The English word is a doublet of gyro and gyrus.
To spin around; to gyrate, to whirl.
To make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl.
Where this word comes from
From Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”), from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”), from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”) (see etymology 1) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.