maelstrom
Syllables: mael·stromUK/ˈmeɪl.stɹəm//ˈmeɪl.stɹəm/
maelstrom noun: a large and violent whirlpool.
Noun
maelstrom (plural maelstroms)
- 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
- The falukah plunged over a waterfall and was almost submerged, was caught again in a maelstrom and went twirling on in the blackness.1914 November 14, Arthur Train, [Robert Williams Wood], “The Man Who Rocked the Earth”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 187, number 20, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: Curtis Publishing Company...
- 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
- He escaped at last, dizzy from the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that had caught and whirled him.1922, Harry Leon Wilson, “‘Five Reels—500 Laughs’”, in Merton of the Movies, Garden City, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 310
- Synonyms:
- pandemonium
maelstrom meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
maelstrom in Tamil
- பெருங்கடல் நீர்ச்சுழல்
maelstrom in Urdu
- بھنور, گرداب
maelstrom in Bengali
- প্রচণ্ড ঘূর্ণাবর্ত, ধ্বংসাত্মক শক্তি, ঘটনার ঘূর্ণি
maelstrom in Malayalam
- vortex, whirlpool, eddy
- വൻകടൽച്ചുഴി, ചുഴിക്കുത്ത്, ഭ്രമരകം, വർത്തരൂകം, നീർച്ചുഴി, വദാലം
- turmoil, turbulence, tumult
- പ്രക്ഷുബ്ധാവസ്ഥ, ദുർഘടസന്ധി, നാശോന്മുഖമായ അവസ്ഥ, അങ്കലാപ്പ്, കുഴപ്പം, ക്ഷോഭം
More languagesFewer languages
- maelstrom in Kannada
- ಗಡಿಬಿಡಿ, ಗೊಂದಲ, ದೊಡ್ಡ ನೀರಸುಳಿ, ಕ್ಷೋಭೆ
- maelstrom in Tagalog
- alimpuyo
Examples of maelstrom in a sentence
- A hulking shape burst through the doorway and hurtled down the corridor, leaving a maelstrom of air currents in his wake.2001 April 26, Eoin Colfer, “Troll”, in Artemis Fowl, New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Scholastic, published September 2001, →ISBN, page 212:
- A Twitter post intended to celebrate a funny photo of Abby, a “chonk” sea otter at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, instead stirred an online maelstrom of criticism, KNTV reports.2018 December 20, Don Sweeney, “Aquarium apologizes for ‘offensive’ Twitter post praising Abby the ‘thicc’ otter”, in The Sacramento Bee...
- An officer makes his way through the maelstrom to report a serious fire in one of the turrets.2019 September 18, Drachinifel, 21:07 from the start, in Battle of Tsushima - When the 2nd Pacific Squadron thought it couldn't get any...
- Setting our sights back on King's Landing, where the Last War will be waged, makes a lot of sense, even if it does feel a bit anticlimactic after last week's deadly, blustery maelstrom.2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the...
Synonyms of maelstrom
Forms of maelstrom
| plural | maelstroms |
|---|---|
| alternative form (dated) | maelström |
Origin of maelstrom
The word was originally the name of a giant whirlpool off Norway in the Arctic Ocean which was said to destroy all ships that came close to it, likely the actual tidal pool system of Moskstraumen in Lofoten. It is borrowed from early modern Dutch maelstrom (“whirlpool”) (obsolete) (modern Dutch maalstroom), from malen (“to whirl around; to grind”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”)) + stroom (“stream; river; current or flow of water or other liquid”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow, stream”)), and was popularized by Edgar Allen Poe’s short story A Descent into the Maelström (1841). Cognates * Danish malstrøm * German Mahlstrom * Swedish malström
Words formed from maelstrom
Questions about maelstrom
- What does maelstrom mean?
- Maelstrom means a large and violent whirlpool.
- What is maelstrom in Tamil?
- Maelstrom in Tamil is பெருங்கடல் நீர்ச்சுழல். See Maelstrom meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use maelstrom in a sentence?
- A hulking shape burst through the doorway and hurtled down the corridor, leaving a maelstrom of air currents in his wake.
- What part of speech is maelstrom?
- Maelstrom is a noun.
- How do you pronounce maelstrom?
- Maelstrom is pronounced /ˈmeɪl.stɹəm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of maelstrom?
- The plural of maelstrom is maelstroms.
Words near maelstrom in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: maelstrom (page history and authors); maelstrom (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maelstrom (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maelstrom (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maelstrom (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); maelstrom (Kannada 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-maelstrom.ogg.
Cite this entry: “maelstrom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maelstrom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.