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.

Derived terms

terms derived from spiral (noun)

• death spiral
• downward spiral

• graveyard spiral
• spiral staircase

• upward spiral

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), 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
• 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kyrgyz: спираль (spiral)
• 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
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 螺旋 (zh) (luóxuán)

• Finnish: kierre (fi), kierukka (fi)
• French: hélice (fr) f
• Greek: έλικα (el) f (élika)
• Italian: bovolo (it) m
• Japanese: 螺旋 (らせん, rasen)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 나선 (ko) (naseon), 라선 (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

• Finnish: kierre (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: spirale (it) f

Adjective

spiral (not comparable)

1. Helical, like a spiral

Translations

helical

• Greek: ελικοειδής (el) m or f (elikoeidís), ελικοειδές (el) n (elikoeidés), σπειροειδής (el) m or f (speiroeidís), σπειροειδές 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: tortilis
• Maori: tōrino

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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: aumentare vertiginosamente

Further reading

• Category:spiral on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Aprils, Plairs, prials

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French

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.

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Northern Sami

Etymology

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

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

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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.

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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.