Whorl meaning

wôrl, hwôrl, wûrl, hwûrl
A form that coils or spirals; a curl or swirl.

Spread the icing in peaks and whorls.

noun
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An arrangement of three or more leaves, petals, or other organs arising from a single node.
noun
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A single turn or volution of a spiral shell.
noun
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One of the circular ridges or convolutions of a fingerprint.
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An ornamental device, as in stonework or weaving, consisting of stylized vine leaves and tendrils.
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A small pulley that regulates the speed of the bobbin of a spinning wheel.
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A small flywheel that regulates the speed of a hand-operated spindle.
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A small flywheel on a spindle, as for regulating the speed of a spinning wheel.
noun
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Anything with a coiled or spiral appearance.
  • Any of the circular ridges that form the design of a fingerprint.
  • A circular growth of leaves, petals, etc. about the same point on a stem.
  • Any of the turns in a spiral shell.
noun
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A form that coils or spirals; a curl or swirl.
noun
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A turn of the cochlea or of the ethmoidal crest.
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An area of hair growing in a radial manner.
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One of the circular ridges or convolutions of a fingerprint.
noun
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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.
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A single turn of a spiral shell of a mollusk.
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noun
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(botany) A circle of three or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.
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(zoology) A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.
noun
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(archaic) A flywheel, a weight attached to a spindle, compare 1460.
noun
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(intransitive) To form a pattern of concentric circles.
verb
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Origin of whorl

Middle English whorle alteration of whirle whirl from whirlen to whirl whirl

Sentence Examples

  • As a rule, however, the number in a whorl is irregular.

  • In the staminal whorl especially it is common to find additional rows.

  • When there is more than one row or whorl in a flower, those on the outside are sometimes longest, as in many Rosaceae; at other times those in the interior are longest, as in Luhea.

  • B, C, D, E, enlarged.) branched rootstock from which spring slender aerial shoots which are green, ribbed, and bear at each node a whorl of leaves reduced to a toothed sheath.

  • xvii.), and in Clavatella each whorl consists regularly of eight (Allman, loc. cit.

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Also Mentioned In

Words near whorl in the Dictionary