gyre
/d͡ʒaɪ.ɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.17 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn.
Literary
noun
An ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner, especially one that is large-scale and observed in a major ocean.
Example Sentences
- "Quick, and more quick he ſpins in giddy Gires, / Then falls, and in much Foam his Soul expires."
- "What is art, / But life upon the larger scale, the higher, / When, graduating up in a spiral line / Of still expanding and ascending gyres, / It pushes toward the intense significance / Of all things, hungry for the Infinite? / Art's life,—and where we live, we suffer and toil."
- "Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, […]"
- "Most ships that tried to cross the Pacific in the past would get stuck in the gyres and never make it out."
- "The host of heauenly beautyes moue, / Depainted in their proper stories, / As well the fixd as wandring glories, / Which from their proper orbes not goe, / Whether they gyre swift or slowe: […]"
- "Jabberwocky. / 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wa[b]e; / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gew-, gȳrus, γῦρος, giren, girer, gȳrāre
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /d͡ʒaɪ.ɚ/
- British English: /d͡ʒaɪ.ə/