gyre
a ring or circle.
a circular course or motion.
Oceanography. a ringlike system of ocean currents rotating clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
Origin of gyre
1Other words from gyre
- sub·gyre, noun
- su·per·gyre, noun
Words Nearby gyre
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use gyre in a sentence
The gyre, which lies between Hawaii and California, is formed by rotating ocean currents and has, over the past 50 plus years, become a reservoir for plastic litter of all sizes.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a ‘raft of life’ for animals in the open ocean | Kate Baggaley | December 3, 2021 | Popular-ScienceSide 2 sends Barnes into the twisty, noisy gyre of a 12-minute track called “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal.”
Cry Your Heart Out: The 11 Best Breakup Albums Ever Made | Peter Allen Clark | September 17, 2021 | TimeBy staying within the gyre, vulnerable young sea turtles can remain relatively safe.
How Sea Turtles Find Their Way - Issue 94: Evolving | Jason G. Goldman | December 16, 2020 | NautilusLikewise, where the gyre glances off the coast of Africa and returns to the Americas, a second current flowing the opposite direction continues south past the equator and away from the rest of the population.
How Sea Turtles Find Their Way - Issue 94: Evolving | Jason G. Goldman | December 16, 2020 | NautilusThe extremely slow collection of organic material and other sediments below a gyre does allow oxygen in the water to seep deep into the sediment.
Some deep-seafloor microbes still alive after 100 million years! | Carolyn Gramling | September 1, 2020 | Science News For Students
Yet with the tsunami debris joining the gyre, the problem is compounding more quickly than anyone can measure.
Japanese Debris Plume From Tsunami Migrating Across Pacific Ocean | Daniel Stone | March 9, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTDorsally, the fissure bifurcates, embracing the gyre indented by the caudal limb of the paracentral.
Christian Science | Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)Ay, and the elves and gyre-carlings frae the bonnie bairn, grace be wi' it?
Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated | Sir Walter Scottgyre (derived from Gayour or Giaour, a dog), “to scratch like a dog.”
Lewis Carroll in Wonderland and at Home | Belle Moses
British Dictionary definitions for gyre
/ (dʒaɪə) mainly literary /
a circular or spiral movement or path
a ring, circle, or spiral
(intr) to whirl
Origin of gyre
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for gyre
[ jīr ]
A spiral oceanic surface current driven primarily by the global wind system and constrained by the continents surrounding the three ocean basins (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian). Each ocean basin has a large gyre in the subtropical region, centered around 30° north and south latitude. Smaller gyres occur at 50° north latitude in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The direction of a gyre's rotation is determined by the prevailing winds in the region, with the large subtropical gyres rotating clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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