Word.ws English Dictionary

whorl

/(h)wɔː(ɹ)l/

whorl noun: each circle, volution or equivalent in a pattern of concentric circles, ovals, arcs, or a spiral.

whorl: each circle, volution or equivalent in a pattern of concentric circles, ovals, arcs, or a spiral
Image: Mikael Häggström, M.D. Author info - Reusing images -, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

whorl (plural whorls)

  1. Each circle, volution or equivalent in a pattern of concentric circles, ovals, arcs, or a spiral.
  2. A circle of three or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.
  3. A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.
  4. Any volution, as for example in the human ear or fingerprint.
  5. A flywheel, a weight attached to a spindle.

Verb

whorl (third-person singular simple present whorls, present participle whorling, simple past and past participle whorled)

  1. (intransitive) To form a pattern of concentric circles.
    • “Waves Against the Sand,” to music by Martinu, which opened the program, filled the stage space with whorling patterns of dancers surging with the gentle but ceaseless momentum of the sea.2008 February 12, Jennifer Dunning, “Modern Style, Old-Fashioned Virtues”, in New York Times

whorl meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam

whorl in Tamil

வட்டமைவு, வட்டம், சுருள், வட்ட அடுக்கு

whorl in Urdu

ایک پیچ دار چیز

whorl in Telugu

a whorl, curl, or twist in the hair
సుడి suḍi

whorl in Malayalam

ചുറ്റ്
More languagesFewer languages
whorl in Kannada
ಸುರುಳಿ, ಸುರುಳಿಯ ಒಂದು ಸುತ್ತು, ಎಲೆ, ವಲಯ
whorl in Persian
پیچاپیچ pičâpič

Examples of whorl in a sentence

  • A French design, the whorl foot was first seen on furniture in the mid-18th century.
  • Arches, loops, and whorls are patterns found in fingerprints.
  • I stroke the whorl of fur between his ears, one sticky-uppy and one floppy.

All 24 example sentences with whorl

Forms of whorl

Noun
pluralwhorls
Verb
third-person singular presentwhorls
present participlewhorling
past participlewhorled
pastwhorled

Plural of whorl: whorls

Origin of whorl

From alteration of whirl (verb).

Words formed from whorl

Phrases with whorl

Words that rhyme with whorl

Questions about whorl

What does whorl mean?
Whorl means each circle, volution or equivalent in a pattern of concentric circles, ovals, arcs, or a spiral.
What is whorl in Tamil?
Whorl in Tamil is வட்டமைவு, வட்டம், சுருள். See Whorl meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is whorl?
Whorl can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce whorl?
Whorl is pronounced /(h)wɔː(ɹ)l/.
What is the plural of whorl?
The plural of whorl is whorls.

Words near whorl in the dictionary

  1. whoring up
  2. whorings
  3. whorish
  4. whorishly
  5. whorishness
  6. whorl
  7. whorl feet
  8. whorl foot
  9. whorl snail
  10. whorl snails
  11. whorlbat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whorl (page history and authors); whorl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whorl (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); సుడి (Telugu) (page history and authors); whorl (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whorl (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.

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

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