Word.ws English Dictionary

whirlwinds

whirlwinds is the plural of whirlwind.

Meaning of whirlwind

Noun

whirlwind (plural whirlwinds)

  1. A windstorm of limited extent, such as a tornado, dust devil, or waterspout, characterized by an inward spiral motion of the air with an upward current in the center; a vortex of air.
    • VVhile in the mean time there iſſued out on the Eaſt-ſide a ſtrong VVind, but pure and refreſhing, vvhich dividing into ſeveral parts that turned round became ſo many innocuous VVhirl-vvinds of ſincere Air, tinctured only vvith a cool refreſhing ſmell, as if it had paſſed over ſome large field of...1713, Franciscus Euistor the Palæopolite [pseudonym; Henry More], “The Fifth Dialogue”, in Divine Dialogues, Containing Sundry Disquisitions & Instructions Concerning the Attributes of God and His...
  2. (figuratively) A person or body of objects or events sweeping violently onward.
    • Once he got that new scooter he turned into a whirlwind and damaged all the flowers.
    Synonyms:
    vortex, maelstrom

See all 3 meanings of whirlwind

Questions about whirlwinds

What is whirlwinds the plural of?
Whirlwinds is the plural of whirlwind.

Words near whirlwinds in the dictionary

  1. whirlstorms
  2. whirlwig
  3. whirlwigs
  4. whirlwind
  5. whirlwindish
  6. whirlwinds
  7. whirlwindy
  8. whirly
  9. whirly tube
  10. whirly tubes
  11. whirly-bone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whirlwinds (page history and authors); whirlwind (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: “whirlwinds.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whirlwinds. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.