as in coils
to follow a circular or spiral course
a narrow road spiraling up the mountain to the summit
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Recent Examples of spirals
Big Think, 31 Mar. 2026
Inside, a central ramp—which spirals upward and outward from one exhibition floor to the next—creates an open interior space, flooded with daylight that pours in through a glass dome.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Mar. 2026
And that spirals her, and then she gets all caught up.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 26 Mar. 2026
Inspired by true events, The Exiles will tell the story of a desperate Westerner who pursues greener pastures in Asia, instead finding greed, rivalry and ego that ultimately spirals into a shocking murder.
—Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 15 Feb. 2026
That is, at least until life spirals you into the next higher tier of the lesson.
—Magi Helena, Dallas Morning News, 27 Jan. 2026
Claire Foy plays Helen, who spirals emotionally after the death of her photographer father, Alisdair (Brendan Gleeson).
—Adam Graham, Boston Herald, 24 Jan. 2026
Wright plays the overprotective mother Laura Sanderson in the Amazon Prime series, The Girlfriend, who spirals when her son Daniel (Laurie Davidson) brings home his new mysterious girlfriend Cherry (Olivia Cooke).
—Brenton Blanchet, PEOPLE, 12 Jan. 2026
However, the companion star eventually spirals close enough to the black hole to be spaghettified by its immense gravitational influence.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 19 Dec. 2025
Verb
Sure, the stars move relative to one another, our Sun burns through a little more of its fuel, and the Moon slowly spirals away from the Earth as our rotation rate gradually slows down.
—Big Think, 31 Mar. 2026
Inside, a central ramp—which spirals upward and outward from one exhibition floor to the next—creates an open interior space, flooded with daylight that pours in through a glass dome.
—Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Mar. 2026
And that spirals her, and then she gets all caught up.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 26 Mar. 2026
Inspired by true events, The Exiles will tell the story of a desperate Westerner who pursues greener pastures in Asia, instead finding greed, rivalry and ego that ultimately spirals into a shocking murder.
—Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 15 Feb. 2026
That is, at least until life spirals you into the next higher tier of the lesson.
—Magi Helena, Dallas Morning News, 27 Jan. 2026
Claire Foy plays Helen, who spirals emotionally after the death of her photographer father, Alisdair (Brendan Gleeson).
—Adam Graham, Boston Herald, 24 Jan. 2026
Wright plays the overprotective mother Laura Sanderson in the Amazon Prime series, The Girlfriend, who spirals when her son Daniel (Laurie Davidson) brings home his new mysterious girlfriend Cherry (Olivia Cooke).
—Brenton Blanchet, PEOPLE, 12 Jan. 2026
However, the companion star eventually spirals close enough to the black hole to be spaghettified by its immense gravitational influence.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 19 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spirals
Verb
-
Dry all surfaces completely and replace knobs, drip pans, and coils back on the stove.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
14 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Astrophysicist inspired by the Torah Vera Rubin, an astronomer whose observations of galaxy rotation curves in the 1970s provided the first robust evidence for dark matter’s existence, embraced her Jewish faith as a guide to understanding her role in the universe.—
Deepa Bharath,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Mar. 2026
-
That carries across to the exterior, where aggressive styling has been eschewed in favor of long, horizontal lines and subtle curves.—
Rachel Cormack,
Robb Report,
30 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
The rooms With curvaceous walls, built in fast-growing Indonesian bamboo, split-level villas with a spiral staircase that winds seashell-like between a ground-floor lounge and upstairs living quarters have the grounding feel of being wrapped in a tropical bamboo forest.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
31 Mar. 2026
-
The route winds through 36 tunnels, including the historic Moffat Tunnel, before reaching the ski slopes.—
Sponsored Content,
Denver Post,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Taylor Swift walked the carpet in 2015, with a helmet-like bob with Goldilocks curls.—
Lisa Gutierrez,
Kansas City Star,
27 Mar. 2026
-
That durability test — putting hair up in a clip, then shaking it out and finding curls still intact — is the kind of real-world detail that separates a genuinely useful product from one that only performs under ideal conditions.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
26 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
To load the product onto the brush, Barnes swirls the tool into the pan twice and taps it twice to prevent fallout.—
Jenny Berg,
Vogue,
12 Dec. 2025
-
The lights are dim and jazzy music swirls the intimate crowd.—
Sofia Celeste,
Footwear News,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Both Allen and Raye challenge the listener to keep up with the plot twists, defying all the conventional wisdom about the audience’s attention span these days.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
27 Mar. 2026
-
The convoluted story, peppered with various twists, lacks momentum.—
Katie Walsh,
Boston Herald,
26 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Spirals.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spirals. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
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