1
a
: winding around a center or pole and gradually receding from or approaching it
the spiral curve of a watch spring
b
: helical
c
: spiral-bound
a spiral notebook
2
: of or relating to the advancement to higher levels through a series of cyclical movements
1
a
: the path of a point in a plane moving around a central point while continuously receding from or approaching it
b
: a three-dimensional curve (such as a helix) with one or more turns about an axis
2
: a single turn or coil in a spiral object
3
: something having a spiral form as:
a
b(1)
: a spiral flight
(2)
: a kick or pass in which a football rotates on its long axis while moving through the air
4
: a continuously spreading and accelerating increase or decrease
wage spirals
spiraled or spiralled; spiraling or spiralling
: to go and especially to rise or fall in a spiral course
costs spiraled upward
Synonyms
Examples of spiral in a Sentence
Adjective
a spiral staircase takes visitors up into the Statue of Liberty
Noun
The glider flew in a wide spiral over the field.
The quarterback threw a tight spiral to the receiver.
Verb
Smoke spiraled up from the chimney.
The airplane spiraled to the ground and crashed.
The unemployment rate has been spiraling upward.
The stock market is spiraling downward.
Let's deal with this crisis before it spirals out of control.
Recent Examples on the Web
Lauren Finney Harden, Southern Living, 15 Apr. 2024
Its spiral design suggests a spaceship and drew praise from artist Salvador Dalí and poet Pablo Neruda.
—John Otis, NPR, 23 Mar. 2024
Over time, the Milky Way’s long filaments of gas and dust coalesced and resulted in the modern spiral structure of the galaxy today.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 Mar. 2024
In northwestern Europe, for example, ancient stone carvings often display spiral patterns that are sometimes interpreted as representing the sun, and possibly a solar eclipse.
—Dan Falk, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Mar. 2024
In contrast, spiral diopter lenses differ by using a unique spiral pattern to distribute the focal powers on the output diopter.
—William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
The galaxy gets its nickname from the dramatic swirl of its spiral arms.
—Discover Magazine, 6 Feb. 2024
The dollhouse is like a fever dream of a penthouse, featuring the giant spiral slide from roof to pool, multiple floors, and more than 75 fun, thoughtful details and accessories: tiny fuchsia furniture and working lights!
—Malia Griggs, Glamour, 24 Nov. 2023
The online marketplace sells used cars that customers can pick up in a giant vending machine
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Back in the day, a silver quarter and the crank of a metal nob got you a gumball shooting down a spiral slide.
—Natallie Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Feb. 2024
Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Apr. 2024
Inflation is running well above target and remains persistent, with risks of a wage-price spiral not fully contained.
—Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Apr. 2024
Bigger fish — jacks, snook — were swimming in spirals or upside down in the shallow waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
—Patricia Mazzei, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2024
Of course, viruses such as influenza are clearly escaping this swift extinction, and so there must be more to their social lives than a death spiral of cheating.
—Quanta Magazine, 11 Apr. 2024
Hormones regulate a person’s mind and body, and going cold turkey could send patients into depressive spirals or worse.
—Casey Parks, Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2024
Advanced Navigation got around the spiral by designing bespoke pressure-tolerant electronics.
—IEEE Spectrum, 11 Mar. 2024
With this season, the spiral has been a real symbol for this whole era.
—Jack Irvin, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024
The house music cuts, banana-yellow spirals light the walls and whirl.
—Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 4 Apr. 2024
Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 25 Apr. 2024
Despite her best effort, that scene has followed Williams ever since, spiraling from internet memes and sports talk debate to serious NFL front-office conversations about his future.
—Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2024
In the past few months, Donghua Jinlong’s videos have spiralled into an online joke.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2024
Despite the man’s death being dubbed a suicide, the incident spurred conspiracy theories and further aggravated the company’s spiraling public relations crisis.
—Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 11 Apr. 2024
The rift has spiraled since, worsened by an Israeli airstrike last week on an aid convoy that killed seven workers with the international food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
—Tia Goldenberg and Wafaa Shurafa, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2024
During the pandemic, murders and shootings rose, and many New Yorkers seemed to believe that things were spiraling out of control.
—Michael Rothfeld Emily Woo Zeller Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2024
But no world power other than the United States has the military and diplomatic capacity to frustrate Iran’s most destructive ambitions by managing the spiraling conflict between Israel and Hamas and containing its most devastating long-term consequences.
—Suzanne Maloney, Foreign Affairs, 8 Apr. 2024
Of course, the value of the additional windfall has spiraled with shares tumbling.
—Bailey Lipschultz, Fortune, 13 Apr. 2024
Adjective
Most puzzles have over 50 words to solve, and the spiral style allows for the book to lay flat.
—Lauren Finney Harden, Southern Living, 15 Apr. 2024
Its spiral design suggests a spaceship and drew praise from artist Salvador Dalí and poet Pablo Neruda.
—John Otis, NPR, 23 Mar. 2024
Over time, the Milky Way’s long filaments of gas and dust coalesced and resulted in the modern spiral structure of the galaxy today.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 21 Mar. 2024
In northwestern Europe, for example, ancient stone carvings often display spiral patterns that are sometimes interpreted as representing the sun, and possibly a solar eclipse.
—Dan Falk, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Mar. 2024
In contrast, spiral diopter lenses differ by using a unique spiral pattern to distribute the focal powers on the output diopter.
—William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
The galaxy gets its nickname from the dramatic swirl of its spiral arms.
—Discover Magazine, 6 Feb. 2024
The dollhouse is like a fever dream of a penthouse, featuring the giant spiral slide from roof to pool, multiple floors, and more than 75 fun, thoughtful details and accessories: tiny fuchsia furniture and working lights!
—Malia Griggs, Glamour, 24 Nov. 2023
The online marketplace sells used cars that customers can pick up in a giant vending machine
Facebook
Show more sharing options
Back in the day, a silver quarter and the crank of a metal nob got you a gumball shooting down a spiral slide.
—Natallie Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Feb. 2024
Noun
Over 31 songs—the last 15 added in the early hours of the morning as a surprise drop—Swift portrays herself as a woman stuck in a spiral of obsessive overthinking, with new cuts seeming to open up old wounds.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Apr. 2024
Inflation is running well above target and remains persistent, with risks of a wage-price spiral not fully contained.
—Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Apr. 2024
Bigger fish — jacks, snook — were swimming in spirals or upside down in the shallow waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
—Patricia Mazzei, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2024
Of course, viruses such as influenza are clearly escaping this swift extinction, and so there must be more to their social lives than a death spiral of cheating.
—Quanta Magazine, 11 Apr. 2024
Hormones regulate a person’s mind and body, and going cold turkey could send patients into depressive spirals or worse.
—Casey Parks, Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2024
Advanced Navigation got around the spiral by designing bespoke pressure-tolerant electronics.
—IEEE Spectrum, 11 Mar. 2024
With this season, the spiral has been a real symbol for this whole era.
—Jack Irvin, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024
The house music cuts, banana-yellow spirals light the walls and whirl.
—Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 4 Apr. 2024
Verb
Set against the backdrop of an understaffed stroke unit, the film follows skilled neurologist Alexandra whose unwavering confidence is put to the ultimate test when a routine case spirals into tragedy.
—Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 25 Apr. 2024
Despite her best effort, that scene has followed Williams ever since, spiraling from internet memes and sports talk debate to serious NFL front-office conversations about his future.
—Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2024
In the past few months, Donghua Jinlong’s videos have spiralled into an online joke.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2024
Despite the man’s death being dubbed a suicide, the incident spurred conspiracy theories and further aggravated the company’s spiraling public relations crisis.
—Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 11 Apr. 2024
The rift has spiraled since, worsened by an Israeli airstrike last week on an aid convoy that killed seven workers with the international food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
—Tia Goldenberg and Wafaa Shurafa, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2024
During the pandemic, murders and shootings rose, and many New Yorkers seemed to believe that things were spiraling out of control.
—Michael Rothfeld Emily Woo Zeller Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2024
But no world power other than the United States has the military and diplomatic capacity to frustrate Iran’s most destructive ambitions by managing the spiraling conflict between Israel and Hamas and containing its most devastating long-term consequences.
—Suzanne Maloney, Foreign Affairs, 8 Apr. 2024
Of course, the value of the additional windfall has spiraled with shares tumbling.
—Bailey Lipschultz, Fortune, 13 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spiral.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near spiral
Cite this Entry
“Spiral.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spiral. Accessed 1 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
spiral
2 of 3 noun1
a
: a curve in a plane that winds around a point while getting closer to or farther away from it
b
: a curve (as a helix) in space that winds around an axis
2
: a single turn or coil in a spiral object
3
: something having a spiral form
spiral
3 of 3 verb
spiraled or spiralled; spiraling or spiralling
: to move in a spiral path
Medical Definition
spiral
2 of 2 noun1
: the path of a point in a plane moving around a central point while continuously receding from or approaching it
2
: a three-dimensional curve (as a helix) with one or more turns about an axis
the double spiral of DNA
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