Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

vortex theory

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.45 in modern English

Syllables: vor-tex the-o-ry
IPA

28

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

4

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An obsolete scientific theory, chiefly developed by René Descartes, which attempted to explain celestial mechanics and the phenomena now described as gravitation by positing a system of fluid vortices governed by centrifugal forces and extending outwards from the sun.

Uncountable

noun

The vortex theory of the atom: a theory by Lord Kelvin, to explain why there are relatively few types of atom, but a huge number of each type.

Uncountable

noun

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see vortex, theory.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"Roger Cotes, in a preface to the first English edition of the Principia in 1729, argued that vortex-theory, with its notion of the plenum and its ambition to explain natural effects on exclusively physical grounds, made no allowance for, and could not be fitted into, a teleological scheme of any kind."
"Still, it cannot be denied that the fortunes of vortex theory eclipsed radically with the publication of Newton’s Principia."
"Christiaan Huygens came to doubt the vortex theory “which formerly appeared very likely” to him."

Usage

Uncountable

Questions

What does vortex theory mean?: An obsolete scientific theory, chiefly developed by René Descartes, which attempted to explain celestial mechanics and the phenomena now described as gravitation by positing a system of fluid vortices governed by centrifugal forces and extending outwards from the sun.

How to pronounce vortex theory

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