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spiral - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'spiral' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Spiral [ a.]
- Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it; as, the spiral curve of a watch spring.
- Winding round a cylinder or imaginary axis, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like the thread of a screw; helical.
- Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral.
- A plane curve, not reentrant, described by a point, called the generatrix, moving along a straight line according to a mathematical law, while the line is revolving about a fixed point called the pole. Cf. Helix.
- Anything which has a spiral form, as a spiral shell.

Meaning of 'spiral' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . spiral [ n]
Meaning (1):
- a structure consisting of something wound in a continuous series of loops
Example in sentence:
  • a coil of rope
2 . spiral [ v]
Meaning (2):
- to wind or move in a spiral course
Example in sentence:
  • black smoke coiling up into the sky;
  • the muscles and nerves of his fine drawn body were coiling for action;
  • the young people gyrated on the dance floor
Meaning (3):
- form a spiral
Example in sentence:
  • The path spirals up the mountain

Nearby Words:

spial spica spicae spicate spicated spiccato spice spicebush spiced spicenut

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