Did you know?
William Butler Yeats opens his 1920 poem, "The Second Coming," with the following lines: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…." Often found in poetic or literary contexts as an alternative to the more familiar circle or spiral, gyre comes via the Latin gyrus from the Greek gyros, meaning "ring" or "circle." Gyre is also frequently encountered as an oceanographic term that refers to vast circular systems of ocean currents, such as the North Atlantic Gyre, a system of currents circling clockwise between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Gyre is also sometimes used of more localized vortices, such as those produced by whirlpools or tornadoes.
Examples of gyre in a Sentence
Gregory Barber, Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2025
These gyres do not move gently.
—Alaa Alqaisi
august 13, Literary Hub, 13 Aug. 2025
Additionally, upper-level atmospheric gyres and leftover energy from inland weather systems—such as one recent Gulf hurricane with origins in Kansas—can also spark tropical development.
—Hannah Parry
amanda Castro
anna Commander, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025
That’s because of the Central American gyre: a large, disorganized area of showers and thunderstorms that rotates over the region and its surrounding water.
—Mary Gilbert, CNN Money, 5 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for gyre
Cite this Entry
“Gyre.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gyre. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share