vortex

Definitions

• A whirlwind, whirlpool, or similarly moving matter in the form of a spiral or column.
• (figuratively) Anything that involves constant violent or chaotic activity around some centre.
• (figuratively) Anything that inevitably draws surrounding things into its current.
• (historical) A supposed collection of particles of very subtle matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or planet; part of a Cartesian theory accounting for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it.
• (zoology) Any of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera.