a large, powerful, or violent whirlpool.
a restless, disordered, or tumultuous state of affairs.
the maelstrom of early morning traffic.
(initial capital letter) a famous hazardous whirlpool off the NW coast of Norway.
a large powerful whirlpool
any turbulent confusion
1550–60 maelstrom for def. 3; < early Dutch maelstroom, now spelling maalstroom, representing mal ( en ) to grind + stroom stream. See meal 2, stream
A maelstrom is a powerful whirlpool. A luckless ship might go down in one, and conflicting ocean currents might cause one. These days, you're more likely to hear maelstrom used metaphorically to describe disasters where many competing forces are at play. When an economy or a government fails, the situation is often described as a maelstrom. Following some precipitous event, all the forces at play — banks, governments, consumers — are trying as hard as they can to protect themselves. This creates a maelstrom — a perfect storm, so to speak — that drags any potential for rescue down with it. Maelstrom comes from an obsolete Dutch phrase meaning "whirling stream."
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Welcome to Wild Wednesday when a maelstrom of factors leaves the stock market needing some of its most trusted Big Tech names to lead it through the chaos.
From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026
What I have noticed, however, is the lack of their equivalents in our present media maelstrom.
From Salon • Jan. 30, 2026
By morning, the clouds parted, and we found we survived the meteorological maelstrom relatively intact.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025
In the maelstrom, Root stood tall to notch one of the few milestones missing from a glittering career.
From BBC • Dec. 4, 2025
When we’d resumed an even keel, we squinted into the maelstrom and screamed our friends’ names.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
