a mass of rotating or whirling fluid, especially when sucked spirally toward the center
A mass of fluid, especially of a liquid, having a whirling or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle, and to draw in towards the center bodies subject to its action; the form assumed by a fluid in such motion; a whirlpool; an eddy
Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices
A vortex is a mass of wind or water that spins round so fast that it pulls objects down into its empty centre. The polar vortex is a system of wintertime winds
If you refer to a situation as a vortex, you feel that you are being forced into it without being able to prevent it. When marriages break down children are swept into the vortex of their parents' embittered emotions
A passage between an environmental extreme on the Prime Material and the corresponding Elemental Plane
a whirling mass of air in the form of a column or spiral It need not be oriented vertically but, for example, could be rotating around a horizontal axis
A spiral motion of fluid within a limited area, especially a whirling mass of water or air that sucks everything near it towards its center