spiral

See also: spirál

English

Archimedean spiral

Etymology

From Middle French spirale, from Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira, from Ancient Greek σπείρα (speíra, “wreath, coil, twist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspaɪɹəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪɹəl

Noun

spiral (plural spirals)

1. (geometry) A curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point.
2. (informal) A helix.
3. A self-sustaining process with a lot of momentum involved, so it is difficult to accelerate or stop it at once.
   • 2015, Jane Ward, Not Gay, New York University Press, →ISBN, page xi:

     My beloved friends and family who sustained and grounded me as I fell into the rabbit hole of this project or down the spiral of new parenthood.

4. (rail transport) A section of track that forms a circle and crosses over itself, used for gaining height in mountainous territory.

Translations

geometry

• Albanian: spirale (sq) f
• Arabic: لَوْلَب m (lawlab), بُرْغِيّ m (burḡiyy), حَلَزُون m (ḥalazūn)
• Armenian: պարույր (hy) (paruyr)
• Asturian: espiral f
• Azerbaijani: spiral
• Basque: kiribil (eu)
• Belarusian: спіра́ль f (spirálʹ)
• Bulgarian: спира́ла (bg) f (spirála)
• Catalan: espiral (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 螺線／螺线 (zh) (luóxiàn)

• Czech: spirála (cs) f
• Danish: spiral c
• Dutch: spiraal (nl) c
• Esperanto: spiralo
• Estonian: spiraal
• Finnish: spiraali (fi), kierukka (fi)
• French: spirale (fr) f
• Friulian: spirâl f
• Galician: espiral (gl) f
• Georgian: სპირალი (sṗirali)
• German: Spirale (de) f
• Greek: έλικα (el) f (élika), σπείρα (el) f (speíra), σπείρωμα (el) n (speíroma)

  Ancient: ἕλιξ f (hélix)

• Hindi: सर्पिल (hi) (sarpil)
• Ido: spiralo (io)
• Indonesian: pilin (id)
• Italian: spirale (it)
• Japanese: 渦巻 (うずまき, uzumaki), 渦巻線 (うずまきせん, uzumakisen), スパイラル (supairaru)
• Kazakh: шиыршық (şiyrşyq), спираль (spiral)
• Korean: 나선형 (ko) (naseonhyeong), 라선형 (raseonhyeong) (North Korea)
• Kyrgyz: спираль (spiral)
• Latin: helica f
• Latvian: spirāle f
• Lithuanian: spiralė f
• Macedonian: спирала f (spirala)
• Maori: makaurangi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: spiral m

  Nynorsk: spiral m

• Persian: مارپیچ (fa) (mârpič)
• Polish: spirala (pl) f
• Portuguese: espiral (pt) f
• Russian: спира́ль (ru) f (spirálʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: спирала f

  Latin: spirala (sh) f

• Sindhi: گھُنڊيدار
• Slovak: špirála f
• Slovene: spirala f
• Spanish: espiral (es) f
• Swedish: spiral (sv) c
• Tagalog: balukay
• Tajik: илтиво (iltivo), морпеч (morpeč)
• Tamil: சுருளி (ta) (curuḷi)
• Turkish: spiral (tr)
• Turkmen: spiral
• Ukrainian: спіра́ль f (spirálʹ)
• Uzbek: spiral (uz)
• Vietnamese: xoắn ốc

helix

• Basque: helize
• Bulgarian: спирала (bg) f (spirala)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 螺旋 (zh) (luóxuán)

• Finnish: kierre (fi), kierukka (fi)
• French: hélice (fr) f
• German: Helix (de) f
• Greek: έλικα (el) f (élika)
• Italian: bovolo (it) m
• Japanese: 螺旋 (ja) (らせん, rasen)
• Korean: 나선 (ko) (naseon), 라선 (raseon) (North Korea)
• Polish: helisa f, spirala (pl) f, ślimacznica (pl) f
• Russian: спира́ль (ru) f (spirálʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: спирала f

  Latin: spirala (sh) f

• Spanish: hélice (es) f

self-sustaining process

• Bulgarian: спирала (bg) f (spirala)
• Finnish: kierre (fi)
• Italian: spirale (it) f
• Japanese: スパイラル (supairaru)
• Polish: spirala (pl) f

Adjective

spiral (not comparable)

1. Helical, like a spiral.
   • 1877, H. F. Blandford, Indian Meteorologist's Vade-mecum, page 140:

     The formation of tornados and water-spouts is very probably identical with that of dust-storms and "devils," viz., a sudden disturbance of the vertical equilibrium of the atmosphere, where by an upward rush of air is generated, which rapidly becomes spiral.

Translations

helical

• Belarusian: спіра́льны (spirálʹny)
• Bulgarian: спирален (bg) (spiralen)
• Greek: ελικοειδής (el) m or f (elikoeidís), ελικοειδές (el) n (elikoeidés), σπειροειδής (el) m or f (speiroeidís), σπειροειδές (el) n (speiroeidés), ελικωτός (el) m (elikotós), ελικωτή (el) f (elikotí), ελικωτό (el) n (elikotó), σπιράλ (el) m or m pl or f or f pl or n or n pl (spirál)
• Latin: tortilis
• Maori: tōrino
• Polish: spiralny (pl)
• Russian: спира́льный (ru) (spirálʹnyj)
• Ukrainian: спіра́льний (spirálʹnyj)

Verb

spiral (third-person singular simple present spirals, present participle (US) spiraling or (UK) spiralling, simple past and past participle (US) spiraled or (UK) spiralled)

1. (intransitive) To move along the path of a spiral or helix.

   The falling leaves spiralled down from the tree.

2. (transitive) To cause something to spiral.

   You need to learn how to spiral a ball.

3. (figuratively, intransitive) To increase continually.

   Her debts were spiralling out of control.

Translations

to increase continually

• French: spiraler (fr)
• Italian: aumentare vertiginosamente

Derived terms

from all parts of speech

• Archimedean spiral
• arithmetic spiral
• barred spiral galaxy
• death spiral
• defensive spiral
• downward spiral
• Ekman spiral
• equiangular spiral
• Fibonacci spiral
• flocculent spiral galaxy
• golden spiral
• graveyard spiral
• herb spiral
• inflationary spiral
• Knochenhauer spiral
• Langmuir spiral
• logarithmic spiral
• purity spiral
• red spiral galaxy
• Riess spiral
• spiral arm
• spiral-bound
• spiral cleavage
• spiral dance
• spiral dive
• spiral DRAGN
• spiral galaxy
• spiral ganglion
• spiral ginger
• Spiralia
• spiral nebula
• spiral of Archimedes
• spiral pass
• spiral staircase
• spiral valve
• spiral worm
• spiral wrack
• Steiner's spiral nematode
• superluminous spiral galaxy
• super spiral
• Ulam spiral
• upward spiral

 

Further reading

• Category:spirals on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Aprils, Plairs, prials

Danish

Noun

spiral c (singular definite spiralen, plural indefinite spiraler)

1. spiral
2. coil (contraceptive device)

Declension

Declension of spiral

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	spiral	spiralen	spiraler	spiralerne
genitive	spirals	spiralens	spiralers	spiralernes

Further reading

• “spiral” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “spiral” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spi.ʁal/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

spiral (feminine spirale, masculine plural spiraux, feminine plural spirales)

1. spiral

Noun

spiral m (plural spiraux)

1. spiral

Further reading

• “spiral”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Northern Sami

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈspiral/

Noun

spiral

1. hip

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[1], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira.

Noun

spiral m (definite singular spiralen, indefinite plural spiraler, definite plural spiralene)

1. a spiral, coil
2. a coil (contraceptive device)

Derived terms

• spiralfjær
• spiraltrapp

References

• “spiral” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira.

Noun

spiral m (definite singular spiralen, indefinite plural spiralar, definite plural spiralane)

1. a spiral, coil
2. a coil (contraceptive device)

Derived terms

• spiraltrapp

References

• “spiral” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French spiral.

Adjective

spiral m or n (feminine singular spirală, masculine plural spirali, feminine and neuter plural spirale)

1. spiral

Declension

Declension of spiral

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	spiral		spirală	spirali	spirale
	definite	spiralul		spirala	spiralii	spiralele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	spiral		spirale	spirali	spirale
	definite	spiralului		spiralei	spiralilor	spiralelor

Further reading

• spiral in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Swedish

Noun

spiral c

1. a spiral
2. an intrauterine device, a coil (contraceptive device)

Declension

Declension of spiral
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	spiral	spiralen	spiraler	spiralerna
Genitive	spirals	spiralens	spiralers	spiralernas

Derived terms

• myggspiral (“mosquito repellent spiral”)
• spiraltrappa (“spiral staircase”)

See also

• dagen efter-piller (“morning-after pill”)
• kondom (“condom”)
• p-
• p-piller (“oral contraceptive pill”)
• preventivmedel (“contraceptive”)

References

• spiral in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• spiral in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• spiral in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• pilars, slipar