vertiginous
adjective
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It is generally necessary to avoid crowded rooms and the vertiginous influence of the dance, one 19th-century medical work advised. We're not sure what condition this advice was aimed at, but it may well have been "vertigo," a disordered state characterized by whirling dizziness. "Vertiginous," from the Latin vertiginosus, is the adjective form of "vertigo," which in Latin means a turning or whirling action. Both words descend from the Latin verb vertere, meaning "to turn." ("Vertiginous" and "vertigo" are just two of an almost dizzying array of "vertere" offspring, from "adverse" to "vortex.") The "dizzying" sense of "vertiginous" is often used figuratively, as in "vertiginous medical discoveries may drastically change life in the 21st century."
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Examples of vertiginous in a Sentence
Sara Holdren, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
Archival film reels captured slices of the sugarcane industry in Java, first established by the Dutch and continuing under Suharto’s regime, coalescing into a kaleidoscopic and vertiginous rereading of the colonial past and an interrogation of historical specters.
—Hung Duong, Artforum, 1 Nov. 2024
Of course, framing it this way overlooks the vertiginous course the Mets traversed to get here.
—Tim Britton, The Athletic, 18 July 2024
Set to music, the fountains sway and shimmy, shooting high into the night sky, sometimes aflame, in a vertiginous frenzy.
—William O'Connor, Travel + Leisure, 30 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near vertiginous
Cite this Entry
“Vertiginous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vertiginous. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
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vertiginous
adjective
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