maelstrom
noun
Harper's
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The original Maelstrom, also known as the Mostenstraumen or Moskstraumen, is a channel located off the northwest coast of Norway that has dangerous tidal currents. English speakers became familiar with its (often exaggerated) perils through literature—Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story called “A Descent into the Maelstrom,” and Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea has—spoiler alert—a maelstrom at its climax. The English word arrived by way of the Dutch word maelstrom, which today is spelled maalstroom. (The Dutch word combines the verb malen, meaning “to grind,” and the noun strom, “stream.”) English speakers have applied the word to any powerful whirlpool since the 16th century, and by the 19th century they’d begun to apply it figuratively to things or situations resembling such maelstroms in turbulence or confusion.
Examples of maelstrom in a Sentence
Ashraf Khalil, Chicago Tribune, 23 Mar. 2025
Still, a good guide will provide general clues on how to mitigate any economic maelstrom.
—Chris Carosa, Forbes, 17 Mar. 2025
Trump had also given a 30-day reprieve to the auto industry, but threats of additional tariffs and the imposition and reversal of those announced cast one of the closest trade relationships on the globe into a maelstrom of uncertainty.
—Eric D. Lawrence, USA TODAY, 10 Mar. 2025
We are caught up in a political maelstrom, and yet the effect is startlingly intimate.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Maelstrom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maelstrom. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.
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maelstrom
noun
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