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
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 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 term used to describe a flash of light, often colored, that can resemble lightening, but is usually bent at odd angles A vortex often appears to be made up of numerous small orbs
A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet
(pl -vortices) Fluid flow involving rotation about an axis; a whirlwind A mesovortex is a medium-size whirlwind on the scale of a few miles It is thus smaller than a hurricane but larger than a tornado Back
A revolving mass of water which forms a whirlpool This whirlpool is caused by water flowing out of a small opening in the bottom of a basin or reservoir A funnel-shaped opening is created downward from the water surface