Link Centre Dictionary

gyration

gy·ra·tion

UK/dʒaɪ(ə)ˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/ US/ˌd͡ʒaɪˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/ uncommon

noun

1.

a single complete turn (axial or orbital)

  • “the plane made three rotations before it crashed”
  • “the revolution of the earth about the sun takes one year”
2.

the act of rotating in a circle or spiral

Synonyms

Origin

From gyre (“to spin around; to gyrate, to whirl; (rare) to make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl”) + -ation (suffix indicating actions or processes). Gyre is from Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”), from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”) (from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion; circuit, course”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “a circle, a ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

Phrases

  • radius of gyration

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.