maelstrom

Definition of maelstromnext
as in vortex
water moving rapidly in a circle with a hollow in the center our rubber raft got caught in a maelstrom in a particularly rough stretch of white water

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of maelstrom Brief breaks in the maelstrom gave way to heavy snow blown sideways by gusting winds. Caelyn Pender, Mercury News, 18 Feb. 2026 France’s President Emmanuel Macron was another one caught in the maelstrom. Andrew Carey, CNN Money, 20 Jan. 2026 Iconic photographs from pioneering observatories of decades past, such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, had shown this maelstrom as an extended haze around the nebula’s glowing iris. Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 20 Jan. 2026 New motherhood is always a maelstrom, but the new new motherhood, it has lately been suggested, has become a tempest of a different, close-to-unbearable order. Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for maelstrom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for maelstrom
vortex
Noun
  • Nicky and Morgan get accidentally sucked into the vortex of a nasty crime syndicate after Morgan squabbles with a clerk (Boran Kuzum) about jewelry at a store and then filches it.
    Randy Myers, Mercury News, 9 Apr. 2026
  • La Niña can also affect the jet stream, sometimes contributing to polar vortex disruptions that push Arctic air farther south.
    Brandi D. Addison, USA Today, 8 Apr. 2026

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Maelstrom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/maelstrom. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.

More from Merriam-Webster on maelstrom

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster