Spiral

How to spell spiral

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spiral

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spiral mean?

1. nounA curve that winds continuously around a central point while moving away from or towards it.
2. verbTo move in a winding, coiling path, or to increase or decrease in a continuous, accelerating way.
3. adjectiveShaped like or arranged in a winding coil.

Spiral in a sentence

• noun

  The smoke rose from the chimney in a slow spiral.

• verb

  Household debts can spiral quickly once the interest mounts up.

• adjective

  A narrow spiral staircase led up to the attic flat.

• noun

  The notebook was bound with a plastic spiral along the edge.

• verb

  The hawk began to spiral higher on the warm afternoon air.

• adjective

  The museum displayed a fossil with a perfect spiral shell.

Where does spiral come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Greek speira, meaning a coil, a winding, or a twist, the kind of curl you might picture in a rope wound round and round. That word passed into Latin as spira, used for any coiled or twisting shape, and from it scholars built the Medieval Latin adjective spiralis, meaning 'winding like a coil'. English took the term in during the 1500s, first through scientific and mathematical writing where a precise word for a curve that loops outward from a centre was needed. Over time it broadened from geometry into everyday speech, picking up the figurative sense of something that climbs or falls in a continuous, accelerating loop, as in a debt that spirals or prices that spiral. The single 'r' and the soft, almost swallowed second syllable are the only mild traps; the spelling otherwise stays faithful to its Latin root spira.

How the word is built

• spir- (from Latin spira: a coil or twist)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)