Word.ws English Dictionary

maelström

maelström is the dated form of maelstrom.

Meaning of maelstrom

Noun

maelstrom (plural maelstroms)

  1. A large and violent whirlpool.
    • To his right fell a gleaming sheet of water, and below it was a maelstrom, that made one giddy by its terrific gyrations.1905, James Edward Preston Muddock, “A Petrified Forest”, in The Sunless City […], London: F. V. White & Co., →OCLC
  2. (figuratively) A chaotic or turbulent situation.
    • It was of Jean Paul's doing: some single billow in that vast World-Mahlstrom of Humour, with its heaven-kissing coruscations, which is now, alas, all congealed in the frost of death!1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Characteristics”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 22
    Synonyms:
    pandemonium

Forms of maelström

pluralmaelströms

Questions about maelström

What is maelström the dated form of?
Maelström is the dated form of maelstrom.

Words near maelström in the dictionary

  1. maelids
  2. Maelor South
  3. maelstrom
  4. maelstromic
  5. maelstroms
  6. maelström
  7. maelströms
  8. Maelzel's metronome
  9. Maemacterion
  10. Maemakterion
  11. maemitsu

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maelström (page history and authors); maelstrom (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.

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Cite this entry: “maelström.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maelstr%C3%B6m. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.