whorl

[ wawrl, wurl, hwawrl, hwurl ]

/ wɔrl, wɜrl, ʰwɔrl, ʰwɜrl /

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noun

a circular arrangement of like parts, as leaves or flowers, around a point on an axis; verticil.

one of the turns or volutions of a spiral shell.

anything shaped like a coil.

one of the central ridges of a fingerprint, forming at least one complete circle.

Textiles. a flywheel or pulley, as for a spindle.

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Origin of whorl

1425–75; late Middle English whorle, whorvil, wharwyl,Old English hwyrfel, equivalent to hweorfa whorl of a spindle + -el noun suffix

Words nearby whorl

whoremongering, whoreson, Whorf, Whorfian hypothesis, whorish, whorl, whorled, whort, whortleberry, who's, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use whorl in a sentence

The team assessed DNA from their volunteers to find the genetic basis of these patterns, looking for a specific balance of genes that shift the chances of having an arch versus a loop versus a whorl.
The genes behind your fingerprints just got weirder|Lauren J. Young|January 10, 2022|Popular-Science
The genetic influence on arch, loop, and whorl distinction is coming in at that earlier stage of building that field where the fingerprint will form.
The genes behind your fingerprints just got weirder|Lauren J. Young|January 10, 2022|Popular-Science
The goal here is not to remove any knife marks—there should be none left after the previous step—but to eliminate the whorls and roughness left behind by the grit before.
Get your scratched wooden cutting board looking bright and new|Jean Levasseur|January 7, 2022|Popular-Science
Astronomers have the capability to directly detect these whorls today, if the pattern is prominent enough, but have yet to find any.
A key part of the Big Bang remains troublingly elusive|Charlie Wood|October 7, 2021|Popular-Science

The artist achieves a similar effect without painting in “Round and Round,” in which Easter-egg hues underlie an oval inscribed with fingerprint-like whorls.
In the galleries: Tracing a generational progression in abstract art|Mark Jenkins|March 5, 2021|Washington Post
Fig. 66 shows a biconical whorl, and its top is decorated to represent three Swastikas and three burning altars.
The Swastika|Thomas Wilson
The centers of the crosses are occupied by the central hole of the whorl, while the arms extend to the periphery.
The Swastika|Thomas Wilson
The specimen represented in fig. 76 is not a spindle-whorl, as shown by the number and location of the holes.
The Swastika|Thomas Wilson
The whorl shown in fig. 45 is nearly spherical, with two Swastikas in the upper part.
The Swastika|Thomas Wilson
In this collection is a spindle-whorl, found at 13½ feet (4 meters) depth and belonging to the fourth city.
The Swastika|Thomas Wilson

British Dictionary definitions for whorl

whorl

/ (wɜːl) /

noun

botany a radial arrangement of three or more petals, stamens, leaves, etc, around a stem

zoology a single turn in a spiral shell

one of the basic patterns of the human fingerprint, formed by several complete circular ridges one inside anotherCompare arch 1 (def. 4b), loop 1 (def. 10a)

anything shaped like a coil

Derived forms of whorl

whorled, adjective

Word Origin for whorl

C15: probably variant of wherville whirl, influenced by Dutch worvel

Collins 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 whorl

whorl

[ hwôrl, wôrl, hwûrl, wûrl ]

An arrangement of three or more appendages radiating in a circular or spiral arrangement from a point on a plant, as leaves around the node of a stem. The sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels of angiosperms form four separate whorls within a complete flower.

A single turn of a spiral shell of a mollusk.

whorl

Origin of whorl

Words nearby whorl

Words related to whorl

How to use whorl in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for whorl

Derived forms of whorl

Word Origin for whorl

Scientific definitions for whorl