gyre

Syllables: gy·re/d͡ʒaɪ.ə/US/d͡ʒaɪ.ɚ/

gyre noun: a swirling vortex.

Noun

gyre (plural gyres)

(literary, poetic) A swirling vortex.
(literary, poetic) A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn.
- Quick, and more quick he ſpins in giddy Gires, / Then falls, and in much Foam his Soul expires.1700, [John] Dryden, “Meleager and Atalanta, out of the Eighth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 112
- 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.1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Fourth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, pages 176–177
Synonyms:

circuit, whirl
(archaic) Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”).

Synonyms:

gyrus
An ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner, especially one that is large-scale and observed in a major ocean.
- Most ships that tried to cross the Pacific in the past would get stuck in the gyres and never make it out.

Verb

gyre (third-person singular simple present gyres, present participle gyring, simple past and past participle gyred)

(intransitive, literary, poetic) To spin around; to gyrate, to whirl.
- 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: […]1605, Michael Drayton, “[Songs from the ‘Shepherd’s Garland’.] From Eclogue ij.”, in Cyril Brett, editor, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1907, →OCLC...
- 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.1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Looking-Glass House”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co....
Synonyms:

revolve, rotate
(literary, poetic, rare, transitive) To make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl.

gyre meaning in Urdu

gyre in Urdu

چکر, دائرہ

Synonyms of gyre

All synonyms of gyre

Forms of gyre

Noun
plural	gyres
Verb
third-person singular present	gyres
present participle	gyring
past participle	gyred
past	gyred

Origin of gyre

Borrowed from Latin gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle; ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”). The English word is a doublet of gyro and gyrus.

From Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”), from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”), from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”) (see etymology 1) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

Words formed from gyre

Words that rhyme with gyre

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gyre

What does gyre mean?: Gyre means a swirling vortex.
What is gyre in Urdu?: Gyre in Urdu is چکر, دائرہ. See Gyre meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is gyre?: Gyre can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce gyre?: Gyre is pronounced /d͡ʒaɪ.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of gyre?: The plural of gyre is gyres.

Words near gyre in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gyre (page history and authors); gyre (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gyre.wav.

Cite this entry: “gyre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gyre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.