eddy
Other forms: eddies; eddying; eddied
An eddy is a whirlpool — what you stare at as a kid when the water is draining out of the bathtub.
Pronounced exactly like the name, “Eddie,” this word means to swirl in a direction opposite of the current. Any substance like water, fog, smoke, or air can create an eddy, but it is most commonly seen as a term related to water. Books from the "flapper" era of the 1920s often include a description of a nightclub with "an eddy of cigarette smoke above a woman’s head."
-
a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind resulting when the current of a fluid doubles back on itself
-
flow in a circular current, of liquids
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing eddy
Learn these essential words that you'll encounter in literature, textbooks, class discussions, and more.
In this epic poem, clever Odysseus attempts to find his way home after the end of the Trojan War. Learn these words from the translation by Robert Fitzgerald. Here are links to our lists for the book: Books 1–7, Books 8–13, Books 14–18, Books 19–24
George Dawson, who lived from 1898 to 2001 and learned to read at the age of 98, reflects on the life lessons he learned over the course of the 20th century.